By JOE IVAHARIA
LAMANA Hotel Iariva shot to second place on the point’s ladder and cement a finals spot in the final round of the Hohola Volleyball Association last weekend.
Needing wins to proceed up the point’s ladder, they did just that disposing off Zerupi 3 sets to 2 in the main game on Sunday after earlier having the bye and having three points added to their tally.
Iariva now has both its men’s and women’s teams in the finals after the completion of home and away matches.
The final top eight in both the men and women divisions are Namona (47), Zerupi (40), 29 Mukies (40), Bullets (39), Ebony Youth (32) and Panters (30) for the men while for women are: Yamandu (46) Iariva (45), Ebony Blackwood (44), Top Knights (43), Tigers (42), Bullets (41) Namona (41) and Freeway Bumpers (41). Border Titans (41) unfortunately missed out on better percentage.
The main match was a thriller with both teams putting on their best performance which kept supporters screaming for more.
Zerupi went into the match all fired up and with the excellent combination of stylish setter, young John Soi with his hit man, John Hasu, who is mute, and captain John Ba with able support from Damien Robson, Ishmell Hareho and Paul Opu, the guys from Erupi street took out the first set 25-22.
With the game set to go the full five sets and points scored on a rally system, the second set was set for an explosive finish.
Zerupi, with young Soi setting his spikers with good balls and putting up good defensive blocks led 7-2 into the early minutes of the second set.
And at one stage took a commanding lead of 11-7 with the game in their hands.
However, Iariva had other plans, and with players like George Michael, Willie Wari, Tobby Sau, Anton Hui, Malachai Michael and Max. S. being experienced campaigners came back strongly after a timely time-out was just the right tonic for the boys from Hoks 1 as all fired up to unsettle the Zerupians.
With good back court support and solid spikes through positional play and blocks, Iariva crept back into the score at 11-11 and with the lead changing hands several times forced errors form the opposition was led to the front and held on to win the set 28-26 in a nail biting finish and level up 1 game each.
The third set was a heated affair as both teams tried to outplay each other in all departments with players on each side exchanging slangs and remarks or gimmick in order to catch each other off-guard.
This also stirred the supporters of both teams as they continued cheering on their favourite team.
Setters of both teams, Soi for Zerupi and Wari for Lariva had to be called upon to set play in organizing their spikers to gain valuable points.
With the lead also changing hands during the cause of the game, it was Iariva’s Wari who had the upper hand as he continued setting up his hitters, captain George, Anthon, Tobby and Malacha to place the fall in Zerupi’s territory for points and come of winners 25-20.
With the game in Iariva’s favour 2-1, the fourth set was up for grabs, and Zerupi needed something special to turn the game their way. Setter Soi had to call on his skills and combining with Hasu, who was the crowd favourite every time he turned possession into points, the duo brought life into the Zerupi camp. With able support from skipper John Ba and the others, Zerupi took the game to their opponents to trade point for point and keep their hopes alive.
With Iariva hanging on to a slim lead by a point, 15-14 the heavens opened up with a slight drizzle making playing surface and the ball slippery that allowed for both teams to be sloppy in their ball handling.
The captains of both teams were than consulted by the umpires and match officials whether to proceed on with the game or not as it was dangerous for the players.