SRM defeat South Central Railway in National Volleyball tourney

The 26th TMB Trophy All India Volleyball Tournament commenced on Tuesday, March 20, in which 10 teams in both the categories had participated. In the men's category, six teams had participated and in the women's category four teams had participated. 

SRM University, Cochin Customs, South Central Railways- Secunderabad, Income Tax(IT), Kerala State Electricity Board(KSEB)-Tiruvananthapuram and Southern Railways- Chennai are the six teams in men's category. Similarly in women's category, Sports Authority of India(SAI), Kerala Police- Tiruvananthapuram, South Central Railways- Secunderabad and Tamil Nadu are the four teams in women's category. 

In the men's category the six teams are separated into two groups-Group-A and Group-B. The winner from both the groups will battle it out in the finals while in the women's category all the four teams are grouped together and the team that scores maximum wins will be adjudged winners. The event is held under floodlights. 

In the first day of the event, SAI defeated Tamil Nadu women's team in four sets. Though SAI lost the first set they regrouped themselves to win the rest of the three sets. 26-28, 25-22, 25-19 and 25-20 was the score in favour of SAI. 

In the second match of the first day, played under men's category, KSEB defeated IT team in three sets. 25-18, 25-23 and 25-21 was the final score, in favour of KSEB. 

On the second day, three matches were played. In the first match, in men's category, Southern Railways defeated IT in three straight sets with the score of 27-25, 25-21. 25-22. In the second match, played under women's category, Kerala Police defeated Tamil Nadu team also in three sets, 25-17, 25-22, 25-20.

In the third match of the day, SRM defeated South Central Railways in three sets straight sets, 25-20, 25-22 and 26-24. Chatrian from SRM was the standout player for SRM and the libero of the team took a ball from the gallery of the audience for which there was standing applause from the audience. 

The third day's play would resume on Thursday evening as Tamil Nadu women's team will face South Central Railways women's team in the first match.