Chennai: Chennai Spartans won a five-set thriller semi-final on Wednesday against Kochi Blue Spikers 3-2 (16-14, 9-15, 10-15, 15-8, 15-13) to qualify for the final of the Pro Volleyball League. At 17 points, Ruslans Sorokins was the top-scorer for Chennai Spartans (15 spikes, 1 block, 1 serve). Kochi’s Manu Joseph also scored 17 points (16 spikes, 1 block) for Kochi Blue Spikers.
The first set started with both teams in no mood to handover a clear advantage to the other. Naveen Raja Jacob spiked one past David Lee and Chennai went into the first Technical Time Out (TTO) leading 8-7. Kochi called for a Super Point immediately after TTO and converted with a Prabagaran S spike. Prabagaran followed it up with another spike on their serve, Kochi now held a 10-8 lead. Chennai called for a Super Point at 9-11 and Rudy Verhoeff converted with a thunderous spike to level the score at 11-11 and take the first set 16-14.
Kochi Blue Spikers called for a Super Point at 5-5 in the second set and converted with a Manu Joseph spike to lead 7-5. Kochi went into the TTO with an 8-5 lead. Chennai called for a Super Point when 6-9 down in the set and failed to convert. Kochi had now established a five-point advantage at 11-6 and they went on to win 15-9 and the game stood level at 1-1.
Down 3-7 in third set Chennai called for a Super Point and converted. Winning the Super Point wasn’t enough as a Manu Joseph spike helped Kochi to an 8-5 lead at TTO. Kochi was now thriving on the momentum and went on to win the set 15-10.
Trailing a set, Chennai went into the TTO leading 8-6 in the fourth set. Chennai kept on piling the pressure and also converted off Kochi’s Super Point to eventually win the set 15-8 to take the match into the decider.
Chennai had the momentum in the fifth. In spite of a close fight for points till 4-4, Chennai picked up their game to lead 8-4 at TTO. Kochi came back to level at 9-9. Hosts got lead and won the match 15-13 to set up final with Calicut Heroes.
