The third place matches of the Munchee National Volleyball Super League Championship 2016 that took place yesterday (16th) at the Maharagama National Youth Services Council Indoor Sports Complex saw Army winning both the men’s and women’s play-offs.
CEB, Ports, Air Force & Casual Line into Super League Finals
CEB and Ports Authority advanced to the finals in the men’s tournament. the women’s tournament saw Air Force and Casual Line SC berthed their place in the finals.
Men’s Super League (3rd Place)
Army v Air Force
Army put on quite a show from the get go as they dominated the first two sets by achieving a score line of 25-16, and 25-17. Of course this was achieved with the tireless efforts made by Dilina Sudhara and Chamara Mihira of Army.
Air Force did go down with a last ditch attack in the third set as they tried to claw their way back into the game, however, a series of mistakes made by Pramesh Sudhasinghe of Air Force proved to be fatal as Army took the advantage and won the set 25-20.
Final score – 25-16, 25-17 & 25-20 (Army wins)
Sarath De Silva of Army had this to say to ThePapare;
“Our team (Army) was determined to get to the finals. With this team there is a good chance to win it as well, however, I am happy with the third place we have achieved today”
Speaking to ThePapare, Nalin Sampath of Air Force said,
“We (Air Force) were aiming for the finals, but there is nothing we can do about it now as the Ceylon Electricity’s Board (CEB) defeated us. However, I am still happy that we came this far in the tournament. We will definitely try harder in the next tournament.”
Women’s Super League (3rd Place)
Army v Navy
Similar to the men’s third place match, the women’s match saw much of the same action in which the Army team defeated their counterpart in the first three sets itself.
Navy did show some urgency in the first set, however, the absence of D. Perera proved to be a huge loss for the side, and this was shown with the first set ending with a scoreline of 25-18 in favour of Army.
The onslaught of the Army team continued as they defeated their Navy counterparts in the remaining two sets with a scoreline of 25-20, and 25-19.
It has to be said that one of the star players of this encounter was Army’s Thilini Wasana as she displayed many heroic efforts to maintain the status quo in favour of her team as they eventually earned the third place spot.
Final score – 25-18, 25-20 & 25-19 (Army wins)
The coach of the Army team, Niroshan Nandana had this to say to ThePapare;
“We (Army) were looking to book our place in the final; however, our loss in the semi – final did not shatter our confidence within the team to do their best. This strong confidence was shown when our team defeated Navy today, which makes me very happy to say that Army achieved this place for the first time”
Navy coach, Kelum Dayarathne said,
“We (Navy) did not possess the intensity we generally have. Our team could not cope up with the loss of our star player, and this is the problem with every team in the country, that there is no proper replacement for any good player”
The captain of Navy, N. Sanjeewani too shared her thoughts with ThePapare,
“Although we lost, we still achieved a historic feat in defeating Air Force for the first time. We will definitely come back much stronger in the next tournament”
The finals for both, men and women teams in this Munchee National Volleyball Super League Championships 2016 will take place on the 25th of November.
 at the Maharagama National Youth Services Council Indoor Sports Complex saw Army winning both the men’s and women’s play-offs.){kind=link}