Sri Lanka Women record first win in Asian VB Tourney-by Chris Dhambarage
Sri Lanka managed to stay alive in the Central Asian Volleyball Association (CAVA) Challenge Cup Women’s Tournament by recording a morale boosting 3-0 victory over the Maldives at the Nepal Sports Council (NSC) Indoor Stadium in Tripureshwor, Kathmandu on Wednesday.
The Sri Lankan Women were able to secure third place in Group ‘B’, which also features Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in this eight-nation tournament.
Sri Lanka, who went into this game following back-to-back defeats, produced their best performance in this competition to seal the contest 25-18, 25-13, 26-24 and went on to record their first win of the tournament.
The Sri Lanan Women were able to stay ahead for a better part of the game and it was during the third and deciding set that they came under some kind of pressure from the opposition.
In fact, the Maldives made a determined effort to stretch the match into a four-setter as they took a surprise 23-22 lead during the third set, which prompted the Sri Lankan camp to obtain a tactical timeout. The Maldives continued to mount pressure on their opponents as they extended the lead to 24-23 before Sri Lanka eventually levelled the scores at 24-24 and delivered the final blow 26-24 after a 30-minute battle much to the relief of their coaching staff.
Earlier, Sri Lanka made a splendid start to the game by pulling off a 25-18 victory in the first set in just over 20 minutes of play and were even more clinical in the second set as they wrapped-up the set 25-13 in 19 minutes.
