Doha: A clinical Al Arabi coasted to an easy straight sets win over El Jaish to clinch the Emir Cup Volleyball title for the third successive year. Yesterday at the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiya Arena, the Qatar Volleyball Association League winners took an hour to overcome the challenge of the Armymen 3-0 ( 25-19, 25-21 and 25-17) to pick their third title of the season. The Peninsula
Earlier, coach Maaouia Lajnef side had won the Super Cup win and the League title.
Al Arabi started on an aggressive note and scored points at regular intervals to have the upper hand. On the other hand, El Jaish tried to make a fight off it but some superb service from Al Arabi saw Lajnef’s side scoring crucial points.
The League winners took the first set at 25-19 in over 20 minutes and the second in almost identical time at 25-21 and wrapped the proceedings by clinching the third and deciding set at 25-17 to spark off wild celebrations.
Italian Ivan Zaytsev, who won the Best Player of the Final award of QR 10,000, stood tall in the Al Arabi ranks with an all round performance.
The final victory meant Al Arabi took revenge of their Qatar Cup semi-final loss to El Jaish.
For El Jaish yesterday final loss was the second loss of the season having featured in three finals. Earlier, they lost to Al Rayyan in the Qatar Cup title clash. Success came the Armymen way in the season-opening QVA Cup final where they emerged champions, after rallying from one set down tow in 3-1.
Zaytsev was happy to help Al Arabi clinch their third Emir Cup title in a row.
“We are really happy to win the Emir Cup third time for the third year in succession. It is a very good win for us. The credit goes to team work. It is always good to see your team-mates fighting together. We were confident that we if will play according to our strength we will win the title. I think our service disrupted El Jaish’s game plan. The disappointment of losing the Qatar Cup semifinal to Jaish is also over with the Emi Cup victory,” said the 27-year-old, who was member of the Italian team which won the bronze at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
El Jaish coach Zohair Belhadj complimented Al Arabi for their superb win.
“Al Arabi played well, they deserved to win, full credit to them,” said the Tunisian coach of El Jaish.
Belhadj said El Jaish knew from the start that they will face an uphill task if Al Arabi play true to their form.
“Our strength has been to fight back when we are down. We could not do it today. I had said on the eve of the final that we are ‘physically down’. We knew that if Al Arabi played well in the final we will not be able to bounce back as we were physically exhausted playing a long season. So today, you saw we tried to make a comeback but did not have the physical energy to do so.”
Belhadj was happy with his team’s performance in the season.
“Yes, I am indeed satisfied with the report card of the season, we featured in three finals in the seasons and emerged winners in one of them - the season-opening QVA Cup,” he added.
