…Celebrates Volleyball Gold

Team Rivers’ women’s volleyball squad on Wednesday successfully defended its gold medal at the ongoing National Sports Festival, Eko 2012, overwhelming their Delta state counterpart three sets to nil at the Teslim Balogun Stadium Complex.

The team, who promised to make up for the failure of the men’s team to reach the final of the event, was in an imperious mood from the first minute of the titanic encounter dubbed ‘clash of the Niger Deltans ‘

After a relatively close exchanges in the first set, which Rivers won 25 points to 17, Team Rivers stepped up its game to dominate the following two sets 25-12 and 25-16 to clinch the gold medal.

The atmosphere before, during and after the match went a long way to underline the fierce rivalry between the two contending states not only in volleyball, but in sporting competitions.

Speaking, moments after the match, Rivers state volleyball Head coach, Opakiriba Harry said he was elated, despite not being satisfied, to secure the gold medal after the disappointment of missing the mark in the men’s event.

According to him, his desire was to stop Team Delta from adding a gold medal from volleyball to their haul at the festival.”My greatest joy is playing Delta in the final, it was better to play Delta in the final than the hosts because I know what they did to my male team in the semi final, which we did not deserve to lose. From onset, I knew we are going to beat Delta 3-0 and I am relieved that we showed our class. Team Delta met a better team in us,” said Opakiriba.

Later in the day,Lagos male team overcame their Ondo counterparts three sets to two in a contest tagged ‘battle of the south west’. It was a really tight contest that went all the way to the fifth decisive set. Lagos began by taking the first set 25-17, but Ondo rallied to two to one set up, winning sets two and three 28-26 and29-27, respectively.

However, Lagos turned the table in the fourth and fifth sets with 28-26 and 15-11 points to claim the gold.

Earlier, Rivers male team consoled themselves with the bronze medal courtesy of a three sets to nil thrashing of Imo state, while Lagos female team also beat Gombe 3-0 to clinch bronze.