Dar Kulaib, Najma lose in Arab clubs volleyball

TDT | Manama                                                      

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s Dar Kulaib and Al Najma both suffered tough losses yesterday in the 42nd Arab Clubs Volleyball Championship, currently being played in Amman.

Dar Kulaib were dealt their first loss of the tournament after falling to Libya’s Asswehly SC in four sets, while Najma could not make the most of a one-set advantage and lost to Al Ahly Benghazi, also of Libya, in a five-setter. Both matches were their penultimate fixtures in the tournament’s preliminary round.

In Dar Kulaib’s loss against Asswehly, they had a good start with a first-set win but then conceded the next three to fall to their Libyan rivals with a 1-3 (25-20, 19-25, 17-25, 23-25) score line. Dar Kulaib will be looking to bounce back when they face Police SC of Qatar in their concluding assignment today.

The loss against Asswehly followed three successive wins for the Bahrainis against North Refineries of Iraq, Burgan SC of Kuwait, and Eira of Jordan.

Dar Kulaib have virtually already secured their place in the quarter-finals but have only their seeding for the knockouts to determine. Split Najma, on the other hand, took the match lead against Ahly after splitting the first two sets and then claimed the third. But they couldn’t close things out and their opponents took advantage.

Najma were then in front in the tie-break, only for Ahly to fight back and secure the victory. Najma lost with a 2-3 (26-24, 20-25, 29-27, 23-25, 15-17) score line. Najma were handed their third defeat in four outings and are on the brink of elimination.

They must win their final preliminary round clash today when they play Qatar SC of Qatar to boost their quarter-final hopes. Najma has also bowed to Kazma of Kuwait and Seeb of Oman, while only beating Jordan’s Shabab Al Hussein to date.

Today is the final day of the preliminaries. At the end of this single round-robin, the top four teams from each pool advance to the last eight, which will be held on Monday.

That will be followed by the semi-finals the following day, and then the final and game for third place will be held on the tournament’s final day on Wednesday next week.