A resilient Kerala sealed a dramatic 22-25, 25-20, 22-25, 25-21, 16-14 win over Railways to retain the women's title of the
Federation Cup Volleyball
Championship at Chittorgarh in
Rajasthan on Friday.
The M Sruthi-led side had dominated the field for almost a year. They didn't drop a single set to first win the Federation Cup in Amritsar last October before securing the senior national crown in Bhubaneswar last month. But their superiority was challenged en route to their title on the mud court of the Pratap Volleyball Stadium by a resilient Railways unit.
The same Railways side, comprising veteran
Minimol Abraham
, Nirmal and
Anusree Ghosh
, that Kerala had humbled 3-0 in both their previous final meetings were determined to fight back. As a result a five-set thriller was on offer, and Kerala, so accustomed to easy wins, went down 1-0 in no time.
Suddenly, coach CS Sadanandan's girls were in uncharted territory; they had thrown a 4-0 lead in the first set to trail 13-14. Nirmal with her vicious serves had turned the tables for the Railways and Kerala were dumbstruck.
The holders managed to regroup in the second set and drew level as Aswathi bagged a few smart dinks and
Anusree KP and Rekha got their spikes around the lanky Railways' blockers. But Railways crawled their way back in the third.
Kerala had appeared lost in the early exchanges in the fourth set before
Aswathi Raveendran
fetched a pair of morale-boosting points to level the score at 14-all. It was the cue and thereafter Kerala were back in their groove. Soorya inspired the comeback, first with a block on Nirmal and then a sublime spike to make it 21-16.
The decider was evenly fought before captain Sruthi got in the act and gave a two-point lead at 10-8. Though the Railways attempted to derail the Kerala charge they had run out of steam.
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