Dar Kulaib claim stunning victory over Al Ahli

TDT | Manama                      

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com   

Dar Kulaib powered to a stunning 3-0 (25-12, 25-21, 25-13) sweep against fellow-title hopefuls Al Ahli last night in their round-of-six match of the 2022/2023 Isa bin Rashid Bahrain Volleyball League.

The game took place at a jam-packed Isa bin Rashid Arena at Isa Sports City in Riffa.

It was part of the second phase of the league’s round-of-six playoffs, which is being played in double round-robin format.

The top four at the end of these fixtures move on to the league’s semi-finals.

With the result, Dar Kulaib claimed their fifth win in seven outings while handing Ahli only their second loss. Both sides now have identical 5-2 win-loss records in this stage.

They are ranked on the six-team table behind solo leaders Al Najma, who have a 6-1 mark, and are ahead of Muharraq with 3-4 record, Al Nasser with a 2-5 mark, and Nabih Saleh with a winless 0-7 standing.

In last nights’ contest, both teams matched each other at the start and they were tied 4-4.

But after Ahli took a narrow 5-4 edge, Dar Kulaib rallied to score nine unanswered points, and the game-changing run put them up 13-5.

They continued to dominate, moving ahead 21-10, and later star player Mohammed Yaqoob closed out the opening set with a powerful spike that beat an Ahli double block.

In the second set, Ahli were determined to stay in the fight but still trailed 7-9.

Things remained close and Ahli continued to stay within striking distance at 18-19, but Dar Kulaib scored the next three points to make it 22-18, and Ahli could not recover.

A Mahmoud Abdulwahed spike gave Dar Kulaib the set point to go up 2-0 in the match.

The victors then didn’t let up in the third set, going for the kill having smelled blood in the water.

Dar Kulaib quickly raced ahead 12-4, and by the time they took a 20-8 lead, they had deflated their opponents’ hopes and virtually sealed the win.

Yaqoob applied the final nail in the coffin, scoring the match’s final point for the impressive three-set result.

Yaqoob finished as Dar Kulaib’s leading scorer with 16 points, while Argentinian professional Juan Barrera added 15 and Abdulwahed had eight points.

Also playing key roles for Dar Kulaib were Ali Habib, Ayman Isa, Hasan Alaiwi and libero Hussain Sultan.

For Ahli, who looked overmatched for the first time this season, Ali Alsairafi scored eight points to pace his team in the loss.

Ahli also stayed in the game through Mohammed Anan, Naser Anan, Abbas Al Khabbaz, Sayed Mohammed Alabbar, Mahmood Abdulhussain and Canadian import Jerome Cross.