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Tribune News Network
DOHA
Former nine-time winners Al Rayyan Club got the better of Police in a roller-coaster decider of the Qatar Cub Volleyball Championship semi-final playoffs and advanced to the final on Thursday.
Al Rayyan, who won the match 25-23 25-21 22-25 22-25 15-10 in two hours and three minutes, will next clash with 15-time champions Al Arabi Club for the title at the Qatar Women's Sports Committee Indoor Hall in the Aspire Zone on Saturday at 6.30 pm.
Police, the reigning QVA League champions, forced the last clash in the best-of-three series with a 3-1 victory on Tuesday. But today, they apparently lacked the fluency and solidity they needed to overcome a stiff and determined challenge from Al Rayyan. Their service was the main concern as most of the 16 faults came in the first two sets.
Al Rayyan, who were fourth in the League, exploited the poor service of Police in the first set. As a result, despite coming close, Police failed to erase the deficit and pull clear. And after Al Rayyan went 1-0 up, it became all the more difficult for Police and they struggled to regain their rhythm and solidity.
However, after having a comfortable-looking 2-0 lead under their belt, Al Rayyan Club began making the same mistakes that Police were suffering from. Al Rayyan made 23 service faults.
Police began to target Al Rayyan Club's Ziad with deep and swerving serves. This move began to pay off and suddenly, Police shot ahead by six points (15-9) in the third before clinching the set.
Police continued to pile more agony on the Al Rayyan receivers. This led them to go ahead by nine points at one stage in the fourth set (18-9). But in the closing stages, Al Rayyan Club clawed their way back into the set and it really lifted their confidence. Though they lost the set and faced the decider.
Al Rayyan Club, however, used Cuban professional Oreol Camejo well and the spiker pulled off some brilliant smashes to place his team 9-4 ahead. The Police's game fell apart and they could not find any solution to regroup and narrow down the gap.
Camejo provided a big smash to set up the match-point (14-8). Police saved two points but Camejo fired another massive spike and Police failed to defend it properly, leaving Al Rayyan a winner.
Camejo top-scored in the match with 28 points, all of them coming from his smashes. Dusan Petkovic added 13, while Iranian professional Milad Ebadipour was not that effective and still, he got 12.
For Police, Mads Ditlevsen and Thijs ter Horst were the main contributors with 16 and 14, respectively. Nader Abubaker earned 11.
Al Rayyan Club coach Carlos Schwanke was delighted with the way his team fought back and found the solutions for the on-court problems."I'm very happy with the team's comeback and victory to move into the final. I liked the spirit that my team showed. We had some problems and made some adjustments.
"The team began to refind the touch and in the fifth set, we played like Al Rayyan play and we won. Police are the League champions and not an easy side. It was quite tough and now we'll focus on another difficult match against Al Arabi," added Schwanke.
Al Rayyan middle player Mubarak Dahi Waleed and Ebadipour were also quite excited with their team's showing. Waleed said,"It is not easy to play three high-class matches in six days. We had also been involved in the GCC Championship. I think we lost some of our focus due to work load. But the feelings after beating Police today are quite nice."
