Ahli crowned volleyball champs!

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Al Ahli were last night crowned champions of the 2021/2022 Isa bin Rashid Bahrain First Division Volleyball League. Ahli secured the coveted title following a hard-earned 3-1 (25-19, 25-18, 20-25, 25-22) victory over Al Nasser in game two of their best-of-three championship series, played at a jampacked Isa bin Rashid Volleyball Arena at Isa Sports City in Riffa.

Ahli had earlier claimed game one in three sets, and then yesterday closed out the title-deciding match-up with a clean sweep of the finals.

With the result, Ahli captured the title for the second consecutive season, while also winning the crown for the fifth time overall in the history of the league. Nasser were gunning for their 13th league title, but must now settle for the silver medals.

Right after last night’s game, the two sides were awarded their respective accolades in a presentation ceremony by Bahrain Volleyball Association (BVA) president Shaikh Ali bin Mohammed Al Khalifa.

A number of BVA and club officials were also on hand. Ahli relied heavily on their star core of Brazilian professional Luis Fernando Venceslau and Bahrainis Mohammed Anan, Nasser Anan, Ali Al Sairifi, Ali Habib, Mahmood Abdulhussain, Abbas Al Khabbaz and libero Hussain Sultan.

For Nasser, they had key contributions from their star players such as Bulgarian import Venelin Kadankov, along with local talents Hussain Al Jishi, Mohammed Omar, Ali Sultan, Jassim Turki and libero Yousef Abdulghaffar.

Ahli made it to the championship round after defeating Dar Kulaib in the league’s semi-finals, while Nasser punched their tickets with a win over Al Najma in the same stage. Dar Kulaib have finished as the season’s bronze-medallists after beating Najma in their single-game classification clash.