Al-Rayyan SC of Qatar celebrate their first win
Bangkok, Thailand, March 11, 2023 – In-form South Gas from Iraq made it two in a row, while Qatar’s giants Al-Rayyan SC produced a terrific 3-2 comeback win against Bahrain’s Dar Kulaib on Day 2 of the 1st West Asia Men’s Club Volleyball Championship at the Sports Palace Hall in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on Friday.
South Gas
Fresh from 3-1 dramatic win against Jordan’s Shabab Al-Hussein in their opening Pool B match on Thursday, South Gas, which finished 7th at the previous Asian Men’s Club Championship in Iran last year, proved too strong for Al Nabi Elias to tear the Palestinian defense into shreds before beating the unfancied rivals in a completely lopsided battle 25-7, 25-7, 25-7.
Palestine’s Al Nabi Elias will next challenge hosts Jordan’s Shabab Al-Hussein on Saturday to fight for their first win in the 10-day tournament.
Also on Saturday, a daunting task awaits South Gas when they will go up against Al-Rayyan SC, which on Friday cruised their way back to beat Dar Kulaib in thrilling tie-breaker 22-25, 25-15, 23-25, 25-12, 15-13.
Al-Rayyan SC
Al-Rayyan SC proved to be one of the strongest teams to be reckoned with in this inaugural competition as they landed the Qatar Senior Men’s Volleyball League at the 2021-2022 season and still remain atop the league standings in the current season.
The Qatari side also picked up bronze medal at the 2019 Asian Men’s Club Championship in Chinese Taipei. At the previous edition last year, Al-Rayyan outplayed South Gas 3-1 in the classification round for 5th-8th places and cruised on for a well-earned 5th place.
Police SC
Meanwhile, in Pool A, Qatar’s Police SC, which had captured the Qatar Volleyball League for four times in 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2021 and clinched silver medal at the 2015 Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Club Championship, restored their pride on Friday.
Following their narrow 2-3 loss to Kuwait SC in their opening encounter on Thursday, Police SC regained their fine form in their Friday’s match against Al Wehdat Club to pull off a straight-set 25-14, 25-23, 25-19 win against the Jordanian side.
Al Wehdat Club
The host team have yet won a single set in their two straight matches, going down 0-3 to Oman Club on Thursday and the same 0-3 margin in their second encounter against Police SC.
On Saturday, Police SC are due to take on Oman Club, while Al Wehdat Club enjoy a rest day.
Nine club teams from 7 countries are competing in the inaugural West Asia Men’s Club Championship to vie for the first-ever title in this action-packed competition.
According to the tournament’s format of play, all teams will play pool round-robin first round. At the conclusion of the preliminaries, top four teams from each pool will make the cut for the quarterfinals, while the team finishing fifth in Pool B will leave the competition as the 9th place.
The remaining 8 teams will next compete in the knockout quarterfinals, with teams finishing 1A taking on 4B, 4A playing 1B, 2A meeting 3B and 3A pitted against 2B. The winning four teams will advance to the cross semifinals, while the 4 losers will compete in the classification round for the 5th-8th places.
FRIDAY’S RESULTS
MATCH SCHEDULE
QUICK LINKS
AVC Website: click www.asianvolleyball.net
AVC Facebook: click www.Facebook.com/AsianVolleyballConfederation
AVC Twitter: click: www.twitter.com/AsianVolleyball
AVC Instagram: click: https://www.instagram.com/avcvolley/?hl=en
AVC Youtube: click: Asian Volleyball Confederation
AVC WeChat: Asian Volleyball Confederation