Qatar- Volleyball: Al Sadd and Al Wakrah clash in opener

4/19/2016 1:12:29 AM

(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Qatar Volleyball Association (QVA) officials during the Emir Cup draw ceremony at the QVA headquarters in Doha yesterday.

Doha: Al Sadd will take on Al Wakrah in the inaugural match of the Emir Cup Volleyball which kicks off from April 30 at the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiya Arena in Al Sadd.

At yesterday’s draw ceremony held at the Qatar Volleyball Association (QVA) Al Shamal where drawn to take on Al Ahli in the second match on the opening day of the championship which will be contested by 11 tops clubs.

The initial rounds of the championship will played on a knockout basis while the semi-finals will be a best-of-three affair.

QVA officials while explaining the draw format to the officials of the participating teams said the two top teams from the recently concluded Qatar Volleyball League (QVL) have got a bye.

Two other teams El Jaish and Police have also got a bye into the second round while the draw also smiled on Al Gharafa.

The organisers said the winner of the Al Sadd-Al Wakrah clash will face Al Rayyan on May 3 while Al Gharafa face Police on May 4.

The best-of-the-three semi-finals will be played on May 7 9 and 11.

Two matches will be played every day the first one at 4.30 pm and the second one at 6.30pm.

The final will be played on May 13 at 6.30pm.

On May 1 Al Khor square to Qatar SC the winner taking on Al Arabi in the second round on May 4.

Al Arabi the QVA League winners along with Al Rayyan the second place team have got a bye into the second round along with three other teams.

On Friday Al Arabi capped a successful QVL season with a win over Police in the last round.

Al Arabi who had captured their 25th QVL title with a 3-1 (21-25 25-16 25-21 25-22) victory over arch-rivals Al Rayyan in the penultimate round of the league came back from behind to beat Police 3-2 (17-25 25-17 21-25 25-22 15-12) to complete their dominance by winning their 16th consecutive match. This year was unlike the last three years when Rayyan had emerged victorious. This season Maaouia Lajnef’s boys showed consistency losing only one match during their entire campaign. Their only loss came against Ahli in their fourth game.

“It was a superb season for us. We had our plans for the season and we executed it properly” Al Arabi coach Lajnef had said.

Talking about the upcoming Qatar Cup and Emir Cup he said: “We are confident of good show as we will be planning to hire a professional player for the Cups.” Also on Friday GCC champions Rayyan overcame Al Ahli Club in five sets to finish second. Eight-time champions Rayyan maintained pressure on the rivals keeping the lead mainly through Russian Dmitriy Ilinykh Mubarak Dahi Waleed and Cassiano De Toni.

Al Rayyan coach Igor Arbutina said: “We’re delighted to win the match. For us it was really important to recover from the defeat and some injury problems. Al Ahli played a good game but we managed a 3-2 victory .

Meanwhile the Qatar Cup will be played from April 22 to 28.The Peninsula

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