Gritty JSW rebuff Postal challenge

Volleyball KVL

JSW held onto their winning streak – even if only by the slimmest of margins – as they overcame Postal in a thriller in the final phase of the Karnataka Volley League at the Sree Kanteerava indoor stadium on Friday.

But despite their 3-2 (26-28, 25-19, 23-25, 25-23, 15-6) win, JSW, who won the fourth phase last week without losing a game, slipped to second spot on the overall table at the end of the third day with 52 points (18 wins and five losses) from 23 matches in the five-phase event.

DYES, who notched up a resounding 3-0 (25-21, 25-21, 25-20) win over BSNL in the final match of the day, jumped to the top of the table with 53 points from 23 matches. Though JSW and DYES have an identical win-loss ratio, the former have won one set more during the course of the league, putting them ahead by a solitary point.

JSW take on BSNL, while DYES face KVC on Saturday, and if the two teams do manage to dominate on the day as they have done all through the tournament, it will come down to their virtual final clash on Sunday.

JSW rode on clinical displays from Akash, Gurinder Singh and Hariminder Pal Singh to edge past Postal, who were on JSW’s heel from the word go through Yeshwanth, Senthil and A Karthik but the trio failed to fire when the match went into the decider.

In the day’s first match, Prabhu and Bharath led the way as MEG beat KVC 3-0.  KVC, who have not been on top of their game in the league, put on a fight through Ashok, Ravindra and Sanoj to close in on MEG but the Sappers possessed too much fire, winning the first set 25-17 before claiming the second and third 25-22, 25-16.

Results: MEG bt KVC 3-0 (25-17, 25-22, 25-16); JSW bt Postal 3-2 (26-28, 25-19, 23-25, 25-23, 15-6); DYES bt BSNL 3-0 (25-21, 25-21, 25-20).