24 Sep 2015

The Capital Motors Independence Volleyball Cup is billed for October 3 at Serowe Institute of Health Sciences (IHS). Teams, which finished the first round in top eight positions in the men’s league and the top four in the ladies division, will compete in the tournament.

The cup draw pitted teams in the first positions against those in bottom positions. 

The first game will see Police VI playing against Kalavango. Kutlwano, who finished in second position, will face Jwaneng’s Itekeng Volleyball Club who were on position seven.

BDF VI will play against Mag Stimela, while Spiking Stars will face Diphatsa. On the women side, Kutlwano will play BDF VI in the first semifinal while Mafolofolo will tussle with Kalavango.

Winners of the men category will walk away with a P35 000 first prize while the runners-up while scoop P20 000. The third and fourth place finishers will respectively settle with P15 000 and P10 000. The women champions will get P25 000, while the runners-up will get P14 000. The third and fourth place finishers will go home with P10 500 and P8 500.

Botswana Volleyball Federation (BVF) president, Daniel Molaodi yesterday, explained that the cup was staged late compared to previous years due to the national teams’ engagements in international competitions.

“The programme of the cup will start in October instead of September, but under normal circumstances the cup would have been hosted during independence,” explained Molaodi.

Molaodi further explained that there will be a slight change with the number of teams participating and format of the competition. He explained that the tournament was in the past open to all BVF affiliating teams, but said this year’s edition will only be limited to less number of teams.

He said they came to a decision to trim the number of teams after consulting with sponsors, and agreed on the criteria of selecting teams that finished in top eight of the first round of the Mascom Volleyball League for men. He clarified that they decided to field eight teams from the men side and only four from the ladies teams.

“We will start playing in Serowe for the quarterfinals and semifinals of the men category, and move to Molepolole or Lobatse for the finals,” he said. 

On prize money variations Molaodi explained that it was done according to the number of games, rather than gender issues. The cup is a qualifier for the Zone Six Championships. Ends