Sri Lanka saw off Kyrgyzstan to claim 5th and Maldives stunned Bangladesh to finish 7th at the Central Asian Volleyball Association (CAVA) Women’s Volleyball Challenge Cup at NSC Covered Hall in Kathmandu, Nepal on Saturday.
Sri Lanka, which have already claimed two victories in similar straight sets against Maldives and Bangladesh, remained in impressive form in their 5th-6th place playoff match against Kyrgyzstan on Saturday. The Kyrgyz side also had a good run in the classification encounters among the lower-ranked teams, beating both Bangladesh and Maldives in comfortable straight sets.
The Sri Lankans took a total control in the first set against Kyrgyzstan to effortlessly win 25-11. Conceding one set, Kyrgyzstan upped their tempo to make amends for the loss in the first set. Still, the Sri Lankans played well up to their standard to hold the rivals off with their good attacks and solid blocks to clinch the second set 25-20.
The third set was still dominated by the Sri Lankans, who led from start to finish in a one-sided set 25-14, match and the well-earned 5th place. Kyrgyzstan came in 6th position in the tournament.
Pasa chipped in with 15 points for Sri Lanka, while Thilini added 13 points. No player scored double digits for Kyrgyzstan, with Mamatzhan Kvzy and Kadyrova scoring 6 and 5 points respectively.
Earlier, Maldives saved the best for last as they registered the very first win in their last match of the tournament.
Contesting the 7th-8th place playoff encounter, Maldives suffered the first-set loss 21-25 to Bangladesh, but they regained their composure and came back much stronger in the following three sets to win 25-14, 25-23, 25-15 for the eventual 3-1 victory and the 7th place. Bangladesh returned with the bottom 8th position.
Hawwa, who emerged as the top scorer of Maldives in all past matches, remained the spearhead of the team in this match to score a game-high 25 points. Shaha added crucial 17 points for the team’s win. Sabina chipped in with 24 points in the Bangladesh’ losing effort.
On Sunday, the final day of the tournament, India and Kazakhstan set up the final clash of the two unbeaten teams, while hosts Nepal will fight it out with Uzbekistan in the third-place playoff for bronze medal.
Meanwhile, Mr Hitesh Malhotra of the FIVB Technical and Development Department represented the world’s governing body to observe the CAVA Women’s Volleyball Challenge Cup in Kathmandu. Hosts Nepal also supplied the Gerflor court donated by FIVB in this tournament.
The meeting was also held between Mr Hitesh and the working committee from Nepal Volleyball Association to learn the management and structure of NVA. Key persons including Secretary General of Uzbekistan and Treasurer of Sri Lanka Volleyball Federation were also present in the meeting.
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