National Volleyball: Easy win for Railways

CHENNAI - Reigning women’s champions Indian Railways warmed up nicely for the battles ahead with a comfortable 3-0 win against Andhra Pradesh in the Velammal Silver Jubilee 54th Senior National volleyball championships here Monday.

Andhra were ill-equipped to handle the powerful Railways who boast of an array of international players in their ranks as the defending champions won 25-15, 25-11, 25-22.

The teams have been divided into two sections with the top eight in the Elite pool that comprises two groups of four for the preliminary league. The rest of the teams are divided into four groups.

At the end of the preliminary league, the top three from each of the Elite group will advance to the quarter-finals. The remaining two spots will be decided after a play-off involving the fourth placed teams and the winners from the lower tier.

The groupings for the Elite teams are:

Men: Group A: Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Services and Punjab. Group B: Uttarakhand, Haryana, Railways and Karnataka.

Women: Group A: Railways, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Chandigarh. Group B: Kerala, West Bengal, Karnataka, Jharkhand.

The results (preliminary league):

Men: Group C - Orissa bt Uttar Pradesh 25-18, 27-25, 23-25, 26-24; Gujarat bt Jammu and Kashmir 25-21, 31-29, 25-19.

Women: Group A - Railways bt Andhra Pradesh 25-15, 25-11, 25-22.

Group C: Uttar Pradesh bt Bihar 25-6, 25-12, 25-11.

Group D: Andaman bt J and K 19-25, 17-25, 25-15, 25-18, 15-8; Orissa bt Uttarakhand 25-15, 25-9, 25-13.

Group E: Rajasthan bt Tripura 25-21, 25-16, 25-18.

Group F: Himachal Pradesh bt Chhatisgarh 25-21,25-17,25-17; Delhi bt Assam 25-14, 25-17, 25-12.