Spartans in Men's Volleyball C'ship quarters

Indias Chennai Spartans cruised into the quarter-finals of the Asian Mens Volleyball Championship after defeating Qatars Al-Rayyan Club in their last Pool C encounter of the 2019 Asian Mens Club Volleyball Championship at the University of Taipei (Tianmu) Gymnasium on Saturday.

The victory was orchestrated by Jerome Vineeth and Ashwal Rai who scored 19 and 15 points respectively.

It was Spartans' second win on the trot who had defeated Thailand's Est Cola on Friday. With two wins out of their three fixtures, they emerged the second team in Pool C.

Al-Rayyan, who had the services of Luxembourg's Kamil Rychlicki and Youssef Oughlaf, proved too hot to handle earlier on as they raced to a 25-22 win in the first set. The second set was dominated by the Indian Latvian duo of Jerome Vineeth and Ruslans Sorokins who were ably supported by Mohan Ukkrapandian's serving and setting.

The result was a resounding 25-20 win in the second set.

With Jerome coming into his own, the Spartans didn't look back after that and looked even more ruthless in their 25-19 demolition of the Qatar based club in the third round.

Brazilian Marcus Costa and Youssef took full advantage of the lapse in Chennai's concentration in Set 4 to mount a strong comeback with a 25-14 win and took the match to the final set.

The tie-breaker saw some intense action and both teams gave each other a tough chase.

The Spartans, however, managed a 15-12 win in the deciding set to clinch the match.

--IANS

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