Pro Volleyball League: Calicut Heroes overcome a resurgent U Mumba Volley 3-2

Kochi, February 5: Day 4 of the RuPay Pro Volleyball League saw Calicut Heroes register their second win in a thrilling battle against U Mumba Volley (15-10, 12-15, 15-13, 14-15, 15-9).

For Calicut it was yet again Ajith Lal C who played the lead role with 16 points (15 spikes, 1 block) whereas for U Mumba Volley it was skipper Dipesh Kumar Sinha who stood out with 11 points (7 spikes, 3 blocks and 1 serve).

After winning the toss U Mumba Volley decided to serve and got two quick points. Calicut picked up the pace soon with two back-to-back spikes from Lal. At the Technical Time Out (TTO), Calicut led U Mumba by just one point at 8-7.

At 11-8, Calicut called for a Super Point and a beautifully executed deception ending with a spike from Lal got them the bonus point. U Mumba made a two-point recovery to 10-14, owing to errors by Iluoni Ngampourou and Jerome Vinith, but a spike from Calicut skipper Vinith closed the set in their favour at 15-10.

Both the teams started cautiously in the second, countering each other’s moves and earning on a few unforced errors. At 4-4, Lal came up with a blistering spike to break the parity followed by a mistake by Nick Del Bianco as Calicut got a two-point lead.

At 5-6, U Mumba called for a Super Point that they won with an inch perfect block by Saqlain Tariq to give his team a 7-6 lead. Riding on the new lease of energy they won six consecutive points stretching the lead to 12-6. Calicut tried to close the gap climbing up to 12-14 but U Mumba settled the matter with a Tomislav Coskovic spike at 15-12.

With a set apiece, the match became a battle of equals. At 6-6, U Mumba took the initiative two consecutive spikes Saqlain Tariq and Del Bianco heading into the TTO at 8-6.

At 7-8, U Mumba called for a Super Point but a rock-solid block at the net by Karthik A won Calicut the point and lead at 9-8. U Mumba made a comeback with a spike and serve from Prince to take one-point lead at 10-9. As the tension built, Coskovic error put U Mumba behind. Calicut had a set point at 14-12 but U Mumba skipper Sinha got his team a point to make it 13-14 but Lal continued his red-hot form to give Calicut a 2-1 lead after three sets.

Leading 7-3 in 4th, Calicut committed handful of errors allowing U Mumba to crawl back in the set. To press advantage, Calicut called for a Super Point at 9-8, but U Mumba skipper Sinha came with an impressive block to take his team to 10-9. At 10-all U Mumba called for a Super Point and won it with a spike from Shubham that beat a three-men block which was followed by Coskovic’s spike to make it 13-10. Of the next five points, Calicut won four with U Mumba taking just one. At 14-14, Calicut needed one point to win the match while U Mumba needed one to stay alive and got it to take the match to decider.

The decider saw both the teams level at 6-6. Calicut called for a Super Point at 7-6 and converted with Vineeth's spike. Karthik then aced a Super Serve to increase the lead to 11-6 for Calicut. The six-point lead was too steep for U Mumba as the set ended with a service error from Pankaj Sharma at 15-9 and the match 3-2 in favour of Calicut Heroes.

RuPay player of the match: Saqlain Tariq

Final Score: Calicut Heroes beat U Mumba Volley: 15-10, 12-15, 15-13, 14-15, 15-9

Source: Press Release