Al Nasser through to Arab volleyball semis
TDT | Manama
The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com
Bahrain’s Al Nasser Club survived a scare in a thriller against North Refineries SC of Iraq yesterday to punch their tickets to the semi-finals of the 41st Arab Clubs Volleyball Championship for Men, currently being played in Egypt.
Nasser fought back from a set down twice in the contest and then also faced the brink of elimination before coming alive in the crucial stages to eke out a dramatic 3-2 (21-25, 25-23, 23- 25, 25-22, 17-15) victory.
The Bahrainis now move on to the final four where they will face the winner of the quarter-final contest between Al Wakrah of Qatar and Kazma of Kuwait.
The other games in the round of eight feature Al Ahli SC of Qatar playing Al Seeb of Oman and Al Ahly of Egypt facing off with Asswehly SC of Libya.
With the Bahrainis trailing one set to two yesterday, Nasser dug deep in the fourth set to force the tie-break.
There, it was closely contested throughout with North Refineries taking an 8-6 lead.
But Nasser scored the next three points to gain the advantage, and the two teams exchanged jabs over the next few plays before a Yousef Khalid spike gave Nasser a 12-11 lead.
The Iraqis, however, went up 14-13 and put Nasser on the edge of defeat.
But the Bahrainis were able to stay alive with a Mohammed Yaqoob effort at the net.
North Refineries then had another match point, only for Mohammed Omar to score and tie the proceedings at 15-all.
The drama-filled ending finally came on the next two points for Nasser, capped by an error from their opponents to seal the match.
North Refineries put in a brave fight and the near-loss was a scare for Nasser, who had swept through the preliminary round and finished with an undefeated record in five games, having beaten Almeena VC of Yemen, Al Sadaqa VC of Palestine, Asswehly, Kazma and Qatar’s Ahli.
Nasser are coached by Brazilian Sergio Luis Cunha.
They were led in yesterday’s game by top talents Yaqoob, Ali Ebrahim, team captain Younes Abdulkarim, Khalid, Omar, Hussain Mahdi, Mohammed Jassim and Jassim Al Turki.
The rest of their squad includes Ebrahim Mohammed, Jassim Hamza, Ahmed Issa, Ali Sultan, Mohammed Mirza, Hussain Al Haiki, Hussain Al Jashi, Mohammed Jaffar and Yousef Mohammed Tahir.
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