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Sunday, March 23, 2008

BJSS Takes Lead In Volleyball Meet

TWO educational institution sides – Bukit Jalil Sports School (BJSS) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) - indicated their early domination at the opening week of the second Selangor Premier V-League men's competition at the Shah Alam City Council (MBSA) volleyball hall in Seksyen 4 on Sunday .
Although both sides registered convincing 3-0 victories over their opponents last Saturday, they dropped a game each with their 3-1 wins on the following day.
However, BJSS claimed weekly cash purse of RM500 emerging as champions for the week with better points difference advantage over UKM.
Game over: Players from Zenne (left) and Gumi displaying their sportsmanship after the match.
After suffering setbacks in their campaign, last season's champions MBSA and runners-up Sukses bounced back into contention.
In their opening matches, MBSA went down tamely (0-3) to UKM while Sukses lost Malaysian Armed Forces (ATM) 1-3.
Following the defeat, MBSA got back on the right track beating Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ) in their second match.
After taking a good lead winning the first two games (25-21, 25-13), MBSA allowed MPSJ to claw back in the third game.
MBSA coach Shamsaimon Mohd Sharit said they gave their reserve players a run after their commanding second game win.
“In the third game, we positioned the reserve players and tried out our combinations. But, we failed to get a favourable outcome from the inexperienced formations,” added Shamsaimon.
MPSJ won the third game 25-20 and both teams stretched the fourth game down to the wire before MBSA prevailed with a hard fought 30-28 win.
Eyeing the ball: MBSA’s Ang Chun Lai going airborne for a spike.
“We knew that our opponents were not as tricky with their attacking. So, we concentrated in our defence and lining up the shots for our main spikers (Ang Chun Lai and Liew Kim Kong),” said Shamsaimon.
MPSJ captain Lee Sze Yen played a pivotal role in the match with his consistent setting and crafty deception at the net.
Lee's quick pushes over the net also caught the MBSA's blockers off guard on several occasions.
“We gave our best and played up to our potential. Honestly, we cannot produce anything beyond this. We also had a tough first match that had gone to five games a day earlier,” said Lee, a former national player.
Selangor Volleyball Association (SVA) secretary Billy Lee said the men's competition with eight teams in the fray would be an exciting affair because most teams are of equal playing strength.
“Only newcomers Fire and Rescue Department will have an uphill task to pose as a threat against other teams,” he added.
The eight sides in the competition are Bomba, BJSS, ATM, Sukses, MBSA, UKM, V3 Johor (V3-J) and MPSJ.
Meanwhile, a total of six teams - V3-J, Axis Jaya, Sukses, BJSS, Gumi and Zenne - are competing in the inagural women's league.
Axis and Zenne also got off to a flying start winning when they chalked up easy wins.
Axis thumped V3-J while Zenne strolled past Gumi 3-0.
The weekly winners in the women's section will be decided in the second week of the competition scheduled at the MPSJ Indoor Stadium in Seri Serdang on March 22 and 23.
The men's overall champions will take home RM3,000 while the runners-up will pocket RM2,000. Teams finishing third will receive RM1,000.
In addition, the top four teams in the women's league standings will share total prize money of RM3,500.