KATHMANDU, Jan 31: New Diamond Academy has reached the semifinals of the ongoing Armed Police Force (APF) IGP 4th National Open Women's Volleyball Tournament on Monday. New Diamond booked its place in last four after registering straight sets win of 25-16, 25-7, 25-12 over Jawalakhel Volleyball Training Center in Group A featuring three teams.
Host APF has already advanced to the semifinals from the group as it also defeated Jawalakhel in the group match. The winner of Group A will be decided after APF and New Diamond vie on Tuesday.
In the match played at APF's court, Halchowk, New Diamond was without its key players Pratibha Mali and Kripa Adhikari as they are yet to arrive from the Maldives after taking part in the FIVB Women's World Championship qualifiers with the national team.
After the match, New Diamond's Manager Sunkeshari Mali said that her team registered easy victory over Jawalakhel. “It was easy win for us as we have more experienced players than Jawalakhel. If the match was against departmental team, it would have been a different story,” said Mali.
New Diamond's skipper Lalita Nath played the open spiker's role in the absence of Pratibha while Shrina Mali was brought as a replacement of Kripa.
Except Pratibha and Kripa, all other first-choice players including Panmika Rai, Salina Shrestha, Sabita Lo and Samiksha Ghimire were fielded by New Diamond.
New Diamond's skipper Lalita Nath praised junior setter Shrina who was playing her first senior match for the team. “Setter is very important position in the team for coordinating the whole play and in the absence of experienced setter Kripa, Shrina played quite well,” said Lalita Nath, adding, “Jawalakhel has some good players but we easily edoutplay them.”
New Diamond hadn't played the last edition of the tournament.
Shivam New Diamond into semifinals
