Tamil Nadu boys and girls posted contrasting wins to claim the titles in the 37th National sub-junior volleyball championship here on Wednesday.
While the girls defeated West Bengal 25-18, 25-11, 25-18 convincingly, the boys fought hard to beat Uttar Pradesh 25-14, 20-25, 25-22, 23-25, 15-7 and retain the title.
In a very close final lasting close to two hours, and punctuated by several disputes over the referee’s decisions, the TN boys banked on numerous faults by Uttar Pradesh to take the first set comfortably.
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However, UP, which had finished runner-up last year also, resorted to some strong blocking by Vivek Roy, Vikash and Avinash to blunt Tamil Nadu’s attacks and draw parity.
Captain A. Atheeswaran led Tamil Nadu with some fine setting and D. Kasimayan garnered points through his skilful mix of drop shots and spikes to bag the third set by a narrow margin.
The strongly-built UP players benefited from their sound blocking, superb smashes and solid defence to come from behind and pocket the penultimate set.
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Despite Tamil Nadu libero Guru’s good showing, Anand excelled with his attacks and stole valuable points for Uttar Pradesh.
Tamil Nadu tightened its defence and shifted gears to outwit an error-prone Uttar Pradesh in the decider.
Earlier, the TN girls rode on M. Ramya’s good spiking to beat Bengal, which suffered due to its poor coordination and below-par reception.
The results:
Boys: Final: Tamil Nadu bt Uttar Pradesh 25-14, 20-25, 25-22, 23-25, 15-7; Third place: Uttarakhand bt Rajasthan 25-19, 18-25, 25-21, 25-18.
Girls: Final: Tamil Nadu bt West Bengal 25-18, 25-11, 25-18; Third place: Kerala bt Karnataka 25-21, 25-23, 15-25, 25-22.