The Hindu : Railway women lift title

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 17, 2003

Sport

Sport - Volleyball

Railway women lift title

By M.C. Raman

Triprayar Feb. 16 . Railways was a bit unnerved when the full stadium roared, and it lost the second set. However, the team bounced back strongly to retain the women's title it won last year at Payyanur, at 25-18, 22-25, 25-15, 25-18 in the 25th Federation Cup volleyball tournament at the TSGA Stadium here on Sunday. It was a bit tough; the team however weathered the storm.

Railways had to be cautious. It had a bitter experience in 2001 when Andhra surprised it in the National championship and broke its sequence of victory.

Here the institution team made a sedate start. It did not go all out with its attack and concentrated more on defence. Geeta Raju started spiking later. It was this cautious approach and solid defence that saw the defending champion maintain the three-point lead. At 11-6, there was a fantastic two-minute rally with the ball moving from one side to the other and both the teams willing to give up. Railways finally won that point with Vini Thomas spiking, and the crowd roared. It was a delightful sight and showed the fighting spirit of both the teams.

Kerala still kept coming back. So the Railway coach sent in setter Sunitha for Vaishali. With better first passes, Railways surged ahead and took the first set. Geeta Raju was spiking well. Vini, Gayathri and Latha formed the second line of attack. Kerala's first pass was bad till the third set and that was the reason for the team's bad attack. Still one woman managed to get past the Railway blockers and that was Gisha Thomas, a delightful player to watch. She is not really tall, but has a good jump and good ball sense. She attacks strongly and can rattle the rival with neat away ball hitting. Not many women spikers can do that.

In fact, Gisha lifted Kerala's game in the second set in which the Railways was leading 21-20. But when the crowd roared Kerala's game gained momentum. With Gisha spiking well, it won the set. However, with better defence and strong spiking by Geeta Raju, Railways bounced back in the next set. This time around, Railways players blocked and attacked strongly. They did not allow the Kerala players to have a free run. It was a neck and neck race for the defending champion, but the team still had an edge.

Railways took a 16-4 lead in the third set and pressed home the advantage. Geeta and Vini were seen at their best with steady spiking and setter Sunitha was using Shiji Kurian for short ball attack. She missed some, but the Railways did not lose grip.

Into the fourth set, Kerala tried to put pressure on the rival with strong crowd support. But Railways did not lose its grip and pressed hard. Salitha Prasad and Sheeba did not come up to expectations. The Kerala coach changed the setter, bringing in Mercy Antony for Minimol and that worked well for a brief period. But Railways proved to be a strong outfit, capable of facing the local team's challenge.

Later in the day, Services men defeated Tamil Nadu 25-22, 25-22, 11-25, 25-23 to finish third.

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