First South Asian Invitational Men’s Volleyball Championship: Nepal and Sri Lanka start with win

Nepal (Red) vs Afghanistan (Green)

Nepal and Sri Lanka won their respective matches on the opening day of the First South Asian Invitational Men’s Volleyball Championship here at Kathmandu, Nepal. Nepal registered a hard-fought 3-2 win over Afghanistan while Sri Lanka defeated the Maldives 3-1 to lead the standings

Nepal took the deciding set 15-8 to seal victory over Afghanistan in the first ever meeting between the two sides. Afghanistan took the first set 22-25 and the fourth set 25-18, while Nepal took the second and third sets 25-21 and 25-18 respectively to set up the  deciding fifth set.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka lost the second set 25-23 after taking the first 25-16 but won the third and fourth 25-21, 25-19 to win 3 – 1 over Maldives. Sri Lanka got 3 points while Nepal earned 2 points. Afghanistan earned 1 point. As per the tournament regulations, the team achieving victory in five sets gets two points and the losing team gets one point. But a straight set victory or 3-1 victory fetches three points to the winning team and no point to the loser.

Nepal Volleyball Association (NVA) is the organizer of  the First South Asian Invitational Men’s Volleyball Championship, which will be held from 12 to 15 July 2013 at Kathmandu, Nepal. National teams from four South Asian countries – Afghanistan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka – are participating in the first edition of the championship.

The championship will be played in the round robin format. The top two teams in the standings will enter the final of the championship. The championship is being played at the National Sports Council covered hall at Kathmandu, Nepal.