Semifinalists decided in National Volleyball

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Air Force, Pakistan Navy, Pakistan Army and defending champion Wapda moved into the semifinals of the ongoing National Men’s Volleyball Championship at the POF Sports Complex on Friday.

In the last leg of the quarterfinal league PAF defeated Army 3-1 (24- 26, 25-17, 36-34, 26-24). Wapda beat Navy 3-1 (25-21, 30-32, 25-19, 25-8). The match between PAF and Army turned out to be the most thrilling match of the Championship to date. It was a test of their temperament, skill and experience which they demonstrated to their fullest. Particularly, the third game was a real test of their nerves in which they toiled hard to get points which continued to tilt either side at even pace. Dawood, Fahad and Shiraz of PAF effectively checked the magic of Hadir and Fakhar of the Army. Dawood and Muhammad Sayyad smashed hard in the gaps created by blunders of their opponents. Trailing at 21-23, Haider and Saleem Iqbal earned two points for the Army making it 23 each. From there the war of nerves started which ended at 36-34 in PAF’s favour who showed more composure than their opponents.

The last quarterfinal was also full of thrill in which Wapda overpowered Navy easily in the first game but had to fought hard to lose the second game. Murad Jehan and Munir Khan won the third game for Wapda amid their accurate smashes and effective blocking by Naseer and Munir Khan. The sailors looked exhausted in the fourth game which they lost with a big margin despite some brilliance shown by Mubashir and Khalid. Semifinals: Pakistan Army vs Wapda, Pakistan Navy vs PAF.