Dar Kulaib triumph, Najma lose in Arab clubs volleyball

TDT | Manama                                                      

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain outfits Dar Kulaib and Al Najma had contrasting starts to their campaigns in the 42nd Arab Clubs Volleyball Championship, which got underway yesterday in Amman.

Dar Kulaib posted a convincing victory over Eira of Jordan in straight sets while Najma went down fighting to Oman’s Seeb in a five-set thriller.

Dar Kulaib and Najma are part of a 12-team field in the regional competition. Dar Kulaib are in Group B for the preliminary round, along with Eira, Qatar’s Police SC, Libya’s Asswehly SC, Iraq’s North Refineries SC and Kuwait’s Burgan SC.

Najma are in Group A along with Seeb, Libya’s Al Ahly Benghazi, Kuwait’s Kazma, Qatar’s Qatar SC and Shabab Al Hussein of Jordan. In their opening victory yesterday, Dar Kulaib were in control from the very start and never wavered.

A Hassan Alaiwi smash secured the first set, and then Mahmoud Abdulwahed supplied the decisive point in the second.

A fine double block then sealed the win for the defending Bahrain league champions with a 3-0 (25-15, 25-19, 25-20) score line.

Also playing key roles for them yesterday were Mohammed Yaqoob, Ali Mohammed, Ali Habib, Hassan Al Warqa, Abdulla Mohammed, Brazilian professional Caio Oliveira, and Russian import Aleksey Karpenko.

Dar Kulaib continue their tournament campaign today against Burgan at 1pm.

Meanwhile, in Najma’s narrow loss, they fell behind to the two set-deficit but were able to rally in the next two frames to level the contest and send it into a tie-break.

It was a tight battle until the end, and Seeb were able to narrowly come away with the win with a 3-2 (25-22, 25-15, 21-25, 23-25, 15-12) score.

Making key contributions for Najma were Fadhel Abbas, Hassan Dhahi, Hussain Mahdi, Mahmood Hassan, Sayed Hashem Issa, and Swedish import Jacob Link, among other players.

Najma take on Shabab Al Hussein tonight at 7pm in their second game.

The preliminaries continue until Saturday, after which the top four teams advance to the quarter-finals, which will be held on Monday next week.