Namibia: Cats and Dogs Win Volleyball Series

14 July 2011

Swakopmund — The 4th leg of the annual 7-legged DTS Maerua Superspar Volleyball Series saw 16 teams grill each other and kept the appreciative crowd on their toes at the Swakopmund main beach on Saturday.

The coastal weather during the opening matches played along and was perfect, with sunshine and no wind, but when the fog clouds covered the coastline, the afternoon matches were played in extremely freezing conditions.

5 Ladies 2-A-side teams took part in a round robin format to determine the best team. For the 2 national teams, Julia Laggner teamed up with Karin Curschmann while Anita Kinder and Simone von Wietersheim combined to form a deadly combination.

It was a last test before the continental cup that also serves as Olympic qualifiers in Maputo, Mozambique, this coming weekend. In the direct match between these 2 teams, the combination of Kinder/von Wietersheim came out unscathed as the pair easily waltzed past their opponents to win comfortably 21-17, 21-18, but had to play second fiddle to the German/Namibian combination of Wiebke Hoeritzauer and Antje Kesselmann 16-21, 17-21.

With Hoeritzauer/Kesselmann losing 16-21, 20-22 to Laggner/Curschmann – all 3

teams found themselves equal on matches and sets. However, Hoeritzauer and Kesselmann eventually triumphed to win their first tournament this year while Kinder and von Wietersheim had to be satisfied with 2nd place.

As widely expected, the untouchable combination of first seeded pair of Mwita Sikopo and Rector Mbeha also gearing up for the Olympic Qualifiers in Mozambique – won comfortably in a 4 team round robin competition, leaving Heiko Diehl and Christopher Rix to pick up the pieces for the runner up spot while the youthful combination of Erik Fischer and Gero Talkenberg was adrift in 3rd place.

The youth competition was integrated to the men’s as a result of insufficient entries in the men’s category. The team of Christoph Thesen and Gerard Fischer was placed 2nd in the youth section.

The 4-A-side social category attracted 7 teams battling it out for the title. The top 4 teams that qualified for the semi finals were Cats & Dogs, Ladies Paradise, The Other Team & The Underdogs. Reigning champions Cats and Dogs was pitted against The Other Team and managed a narrow 2-1 win to reach the final in the semi final where they came up against Ladies Paradise who had earlier accounted for The Underdogs 2-0.

The final was played at sunset with Cats & Dogs emerging deserved winners 2-0 sets for their 3rd title of the year. 3rd place went to The Underdogs.

AllAfrica – All the Time