Al Arabi players receiving the Qatar Cup trophy during the presentation ceremony. Al Arabi notched an impressive three sets to one win over Al Rayyan to win the Qatar Cup at the Women’s Sports Committee Hall at Aspire Dome.
Al Arabi notched an impressive three sets to one win over Al Rayyan to win the Qatar Cup at the Women’s Sports Committee Hall at Aspire Dome.
Al Arabi came on top in the two hour battle for supremacy winning 25-21, 21- 25, 25-17, 25-22 to pick their third tile of the season, having earlier won the Federation Cup and Super Cup.
Al Arabi took the keenly contested first set at 25-21, while the second set again turned out to be a see saw battle which Al Rayyan won by an identical score. However, Al Arabi bounced back to win the third and fourth to pocket the title.
“It is a big victory for us, although we did not play that well. The second set was a strange one, nothing was going our way, but we bounced back in the subsequent ones to win the title,” said Al Arabi player Sander Taylor.
In the first set, the initial proceedings saw both teams fighting neck to neck until Al Arabi broke free to take a two point lead at 9-7.
But, Al Rayyan fought back to tie the score at 11-all.
Al Arabi however, once took the upper hand to take a 14-11 lead.
Thereafter, coach Patrick Duflos' side held the grip over the rallies and maintained a consistent two-point lead which they carried to where end to win the first set.
In the second set, Al Rayyan were determined to bounce back and took a runaway lead at 8-3.
But later, Al Arabi made a splendid recovery to tie the score at 11-all.
From thereon, fortunes fluctuated with Al Rayyan having an upper hand for a brief period only to surrender the initiative to their rivals. In the end Al Rayyan pocked the second at 25-21.
In the third set, Al Arabi determined to finish off the proceedings, took a five point lead at 8-3.
Al Rayyan clawed back to narrow the lead at 12-9.
Al Arabi put up an all round display to maintain a grip over the show in the middle, increasing the lead to seven points at 23-16.
Al Arabi then took the next two points to wrap the third at 25-17.
Al Arabi continued where from they left off in the fourth set, taking an early 5-3 lead.
The defending champions had other thoughts as they came back strongly to tie the score at eight-all.
From that stage, both the teams fought hard for each point with score tied at 11-all and 14-all, until Al Arabi broke free to make it 15-13 and went on to extend the lead to three points at 17-14.
Coach Carlos Schwanke's side tried to make a fight and took a timeout with score reading 20-18 to stop their rivals in their tracks.
Al Arabi were in no mood to allow any room for their rivals, Schwanke's boys took a decisive 23-21 lead to take the upper hand.
In the end, Al Arabi won 25-22 to set about wild celebrations in the Al Arabi camp.
