India dominate Maldives, Iran win

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Aug. 3: Defending champions India had a comfortable win over the lowly Maldives. At the same time, Iran bounced back in the tournament with a victory over Sri Lanka in a five-setter thriller at the CAVA Women’s Volleyball Nations League in Kathmandu on Friday.

The Maldives were no match for India as the defending champions claimed a straight-set victory with a score of 25-6, 25-11 and 25-10. 

The triumph moves India to the top of the league standings with six points. The title holders will be playing against Nepal on Saturday afternoon. 

Nepal has three points and looks to upset India to remain in the title contention in their home court. 

In the first match of the day, Iran was comfortably leading 2-0 but they squandered two straight sets to Sri Lanka and won the game in the fifth set.

The young team of Iran struggled to take the first set by 25-20. They however easily claimed the second set with 25-12. 

Sri Lanka, however, was not in the mood to give up easily as they took the third and fourth sets by 25-22 and 25-13 reviving their hopes for a win. The islanders ran out of gas in the fifth set handing over the match to Iran by 15-11.   

With a hard-fought victory helped Iran managed to collect two points. They lost their first match against India 3-1 in the opener on Thursday. 

After two defeats in a row, Sri Lanka are without a point. They lost their first match against host Nepal in straight three sets. Iran will be playing the Maldives in Saturday’s second match. 

Nepal into semifinals

The Nepali men and women have advanced to the semifinals at the CAVA Beach Volleyball tournament in Thimpu, Bhutan. The Nepali women won three consecutive matches to secure their spot in the last four. The duo of Kamala Pun and Manish Chaudhary defeated Uzbekistan with scores of 21-17, 21-15, and then beat Maldives with scores of 21-14, 21-16 on Friday.

The Nepali men, after losing their first match on Thursday, bounced back with three wins. The team of Man Bahadur and Dil Bahadur Sunar first defeated Bhutan with scores of 21-14, 21-21, then outplayed Uzbekistan with the same scores of 21-15. In their last group match, Nepal defeated Tajikistan with scores of 21-13, 21-17.