By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Nov 14: Nepali eves on Thursday scripted a new chapter in the annals of Nepali women’s volleyball winning an international title at Mirpur, Dhaka of Bangladesh.

On their way to create a new history, the Nepali players claimed the title of Asian Senior Central Zone Women's Volleyball Championship 2019 defeating the Maldives by 3-0 in the final at the Shaheed Suhrawardi Indoor Stadium.

The Nepali girls registered a comfortable 25-13, 25-12 and 25-8 victory over the Maldives to bag the first ever international volleyball title.

Team Nepal, who took the Mirpur matches as their preparation for the 13th South Asian Games, won all the sets of entire matches they played in the championship.

The Nepali women’s volleyball team has achieved a milestone after two decades of their international appearances. They kissed the first ever gold medal at the maiden edition of the Asian Senior Central Zone Women's Volleyball Championship 2019.

The Nepali female team had started their international volleyball journey from 1999 and they won first international bronze medal at 8th South Asian Games. They had later won two silver medals at South Asian Games. They bagged first silver medal at 10th edition of the SAG and won second silver at 12th edition of the SAG.

Nepal’s national women’s team spiker Pratibha Mali was declared the best spiker of the championship for her remarkable performance during the championship. Mali was also declared the Player of Match against Afghanistan.

Nepali skipper Aruna Shahi said she was glad that she led the team to the gold medal in her first duty as captain. “My dream of winning the gold medal at the first championship as a captain has come true” said beaming Shahi.

“We were here to win the gold medal which we had predicted before travelling to Dhaka, and our confidence has proved today,” Captain Shahi added.

Nepal had trailed in the first set of the title clash but they made a heroic comeback in the match as they recovered from 4-7 down. The Nepali girls snatched 12 points from 4-7 down to post 16-7 in the first set.

They continued dominating over the Maldives women registering a 25-12 in the second sets as they won the first ever title for the country straightway as they defeated the Maldives 25-12 in the final set.

Earlier, Nepali women's nation team had won silver medal at South Asian Invitational Women's Volleyball Championship held in Kathmandu in 2014.

The unbeaten Nepali eves registered straight set victory over host Bangladesh, Maldives, Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan in the group stage of the championship.

Meanwhile, Kyrgyzstan ended their journey at the third spot of the championship after thrashing host Bangladesh in the third place play-off.

Altogether five teams had taken part in the tournament that included host Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, the Maldives and Nepal.