15 Oct 2018

As the 2018 Mascom Volleyball League sprints to the finish line this weekend, disciplined forces sides, Police VI men’s team and BDF VI’s men’s team have ensured the title decider would be an epic one, as they two won their weekend games, taking them to the next level on 61 points ahead of their clash on October 21.

While Police VI did not need to pull their reserve tanks in their game against fourth placed Kalavango whom they defeated 3-1, the same cannot be said about BDF VI who were forced to pull every sinew in their body for a hard fought 3-2 victory against the determined Spiking Stars.

BDF VI went into the game well aware that it was victory or nothing if they were to keep alive their chances of dethroning the reigning champions, Police VI.

Their chances looked to be diminishing when they lost the second and third sets in a tense game played before a crowd that appeared against them.

The army side however, recovered in the fourth set that they narrowly won 25-22 before winning the deciding set 17-15.

In a post-match interview, BDF VI caretaker coach, Isaiah Bannye admitted that it was a seat-edge moment for him and his bench as they could not afford to lose the game.

“Had we lost this game, then we would have effectively kissed goodbye our chances of the championships, particularly that Police VI have an advantage of sets conceded compared to us.

The game was however, not supposed to go that far because we have been aware of how Spiking Stars play. We knew that they were strong on the service, so we prepared well for reception and blocking,” he said.

However, Bannye admitted that they failed to execute their plan in the first set, hence losing it.

He said they managed to correct their mistakes in the second and third sets. He said had they managed to get their plan right from the first set, they would have wrapped the game as early as the third set.

Despite being pushed all the way to the fifth set, Bannye said what mattered was that they won the game, especially ahead of their do or die fixture next weekend.

“It will obviously be an epic battle because it will be winner takes all. We take each game as it comes, so we are done with Spiking Stars. On Monday, we will now start preparing for Police VI and because they are a different team, preparations will obviously be different,” he said.

Bannye promised that his team would be hungry against Police VI and out for revenge as the Cops inflicted them their only loss of the league so far.

On October 14, Police VI coach, Shimaka Ngwanaotsile saw his team cruising to a comfortable 3-1 win against Kalavango.

He attributed the set they conceded to poor serves. “Our serves left much to be desired, especially in the third set as most of the time they were either way over or hit the net, so the opponent capitalised on that,” he said.

He however, indicated that those were just minor mistakes they would easily correct before the tittle decider next Sunday.

Ngwanaotsile said he was confident to finish off BDF VI and retain the title they won back in 2016, especially looking at the quality of the squad that he has. ENDS