JEDDAH, 6 June 2007 — Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal got the must-win game they needed beating Shanghai Oriental of China yesterday to advance into the semifinal in the 2007 Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship held at the Juffair Youth Center in Manama, Bahrain.
Hilal held their nerves during the tough match against the Chinese to win in straight sets 29-27, 25-19, 25-19 and qualify second of Group B with a 4-1 win-loss record.
Hilal face the Group A top team, Al-Najma of Bahrain, in the semifinal tomorrow with Paykan of Iran, the only team to beat Hilal in the group stage and the topnotcher from Group B, taking on Al-Arabi of Qatar, who qualified second from Group A.
The semifinal matches starting at 7 p.m. tomorrow will be telecast live over Bahrain Sport Channel and Saudi Sport Channel. The final takes place on Friday.
Battling to stay alive, Hilal found Shanghai a tough customer and needed to dig deep in the first set to win 29-27. Hilal continued to hang tough in the second with Naif Al-Bouhassoun delivering the winning point.
The third set was a virtual replay of the second for Hilal, who in a way avenged the Saudi national team’s 3-2 semifinal defeat by China in last December’s 15th Asian Games in Doha, Qatar.
Hilal won their first three games against Al-Ahli of UAE 3-1, Rahat-CSKA of Kazakhstan 3-1 and Asia World of Myanmar 3-1 and lost against Paykan of Iran 3-1.
