Indian Railways defeated Kerala 25-18, 25-16, 28-26 to win all their three round robin league matches and become the women’s champion. Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Bengal with two wins, one and no win finished in that order.
After posting thrilling five set wins in the semifinals, Uttarakhand and Karnataka were expected to put up a quality game in front of a near full house but the latter disappointed.
Gurchand Singh and Vinit Kumar came up with brilliant spikes to help Uttarakhand take an 8-6 lead in the first set. Anup D’Costa counter-spiked to keep Karnataka in the game and both teams were tied at 13-13 at one stage. It was 20-19 when Uttarakhand’s Ranjit Singh’s serve found the net. But that was the last mistake Uttarakhand made. S.A. Rahul blocked while Vinit spiked to give Uttarakhand the first set 25-20.
Karnataka continued to have no answers to Uttarakhand’s spiking abilities. Vinit and Lalit Kumar combined with setter Ranjit Singh as Uttarakhand took a 7-4 lead in the second set. Karnataka blocker Ashwal Rai’s finger injury in the semifinal took its toll as he struggled to block and was spiking well only occasionally, thus putting tremendous pressure on the other blocker Karthik.
However, D’Costa and Raison Benet Rebello’s good spiking helped Karnataka draw level at 15-15. But the tall Uttarakhand players spiked with clinical precision to make it as 19-15 before Vinit came good again to help his team take the second set 25-19.
The Karnataka players looked completely demoralised in the third set. Lalit, Vinit and Navjit Singh spiked and blocked at regular intervals to help Uttarakhand take a 8-6 lead. Though Karnataka drew level at 13-13, a series of defensive errors and lack of coordination at the net cost it dear. After racing to a 21-18 lead, Lalit, who had a brilliant match, finished the contest with a spike as Uttarakhand took the third set 25-21 to corner glory.
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