Bahrain’s Al Nasser advance to final of Arab clubs volleyball

TDT | Manama                      

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com   

Bahrain’s Al Nasser Club last night barged into the gold medal match of the 41st Arab Clubs Volleyball Championship for Men, currently being played in Egypt.

Nasser claimed their berth in the final with a resounding 3-1 (25-19, 28-26, 23-25, 25-20) win against Al Wakrah SC of Qatar.

It was a brilliant win for the Bahrainis, who will now take on either Al Ahly of Egypt or Al Seeb of Oman in the title-decider. That game is scheduled to be held tomorrow.

It will be the first time Nasser will be playing in the final in the tournament’s history.

Nasser’s outstanding result last night maintained their undefeated record in this year’s competition.

After narrowly missing out on a chance for a clean sweep, Nasser were determined to close things out against Wakrah in the fourth set.

They took a slim 14-12 lead, but the Qataris were able to level the scores at 15-apiece.

Nasser then went on a decisive 5-0 rally that gave them control, which then allowed them to close out the win. Star player Mohammed Yaqoob provided the winning point with a spike.

Yaqoob finished as the Bahrainis’ top scorer with 23 points.

Teammate Yousef Khaled added 21, while Ali Ebrahim scored 15 and Mohammed Omar had 14 for Nasser.

The only other Bahraini teams to reach the competition’s title match were Dar Kulaib and Al Ahli in past editions.

Nasser’s win yesterday was their seventh in a row.

They had previously beaten North Refineries of Iraq in the quarter-finals, after sweeping through the preliminary round with wins against Almeena VC of Yemen, Al Sadaqa VC of Palestine, Asswehly SC of Libya, Kazma SC of Kuwait, and Al Ahli of Qatar.