Volleyball Cup enters final stage

The semi-final round of the 2015 Bank Windhoek NVF Cup took place last weekend in Swakopmund. This was a historic event as the round was for the first time played at an international standard facility in the form of the Swakopmund Indoor Sports Center.

The Namibian Volleyball Federation, having secured the donation of an Olympic standard playing surface from Volleyball England, exposed the teams participating to the level of facilities to be expected from any world class volleyball event.
Teams adjusted well to the new playing conditions and the level of play improved significantly due to players being able to rely on world class equipment. Games kicked off on Saturday morning, with SKW taking on the ladies of Khomas Nampol. The first set was a tightly contested affair with the score ending 25:22 in favour of SKW.
The next two sets were not as tightly contested and SKW managed to finish out the sets to make the final score 3:0. The second game in the ladies division saw surprise qualifiers Noordgrens take on high flying NDF.
Some of the women from Noordgrens recently returned from their National Team duties at the Confederation of School Sport Associations of Southern Africa (COSSASA) Ball games and were keen to build on their successful form.
Noordgrens fought hard and managed to give the blockers of NDF a tough time, but unfortunately it was not enough to take a set against the experience and determination of NDF. This game also ended with a final score of 3:0 in favour of NDF.
The Men’s competition saw the winners of the Central League, Khomas Nampol drawn against the winners of the Far Northern League, Six Stars.
It seemed however, that Khomas Nampol Volleyball Club (KNVC) had done its homework, and done it well. The first set saw the Police team dominate and build up a commanding lead to close out the set 25:11.
The second set saw KNVC picking up right where they left off, being 16:9 points ahead at the second technical time-out. At this point it became apparent that KNVC was fielding a player that was not registered to play for this round of the competition. After some deliberation the decision was taken by the officials that the current set was to be awarded to Six Stars due to the player being fielded illegally.
Once the shell-shocked KNVC managed to recover their composure, however, they managed to catch up quickly and took back the set 25:21. This left the score at 2 sets to 1 going in to the fourth set. KNVC managed to build on the momentum they found at the end of set 3 to finish off the game decisively 3:1.
The final game of the day and also the round was between NDF and the local Erongo team Navy VC. Both teams came out strong, but after battling Navy VC succumed to NDF who finished the game at 25 which saw them close out the match to become the second team to make up the finals and face long-time rivals KNVC for the cup in Windhoek.
The final round will take place in Windhoek on 3 October at UNAM main campus sports hall.
Games start at 10:00 and entrance will be free.