Najma claim series opener against Ahli

TDT | Manama                                                      

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Al Najmwa drew first blood against Al Ahli last night in their best-of-three semi-final series in the His Royal Highness the Crown Prince’s Cup 2024.

Najma took the 1-0 advantage in this prestigious annual volleyball tournament following a hard-earned 3-2 (20-25, 25- 23, 25-21, 18-25, 15-9) victory against their rivals, played at Isa bin Rashid Arena at Isa Sports City in Riffa.

Najma will now be hoping to close out the series when they meet again for game two, while Ahli will be looking to extend their head-to-head to a winnertake-all third game.

The winners of this semi-final will move on to battle for the competition title against the victor from the other match-up between holders Dar Kulaib and Muharraq.

Muharraq currently hold a single-game advantage after beating Dar Kulaib in four sets in game one.

In last night’s contest, Ahli were the early aggressors and convincingly took the first set, but Najma roared back and a Hassan Dhahi spike levelled the match.

They rode their momentum into the third where Fadhel Abbas scored the clinching point, but Ahli were dominant in the fourth set to send the match into the tie-break.

There, Najma had a great start, going up 5-0 and holding on to their advantage the rest of the way until Swedish professional Jacob Link provided the game-clinching kill.

Also making key contributions for Najma were Hussain Mahdi and Mahmood Hassan, while spearheading Ahli in their narrow loss were Ali Ebrahim, Nasser Anan, and Montenegro professional Marko Vukasinovic, among others. Dar Kulaib won last year’s competition after defeating Ahli in four sets in a rocking final.