NABA Volleyball Club raised the Zimbabwean flag high in the just ended 2023 - CAVB Zone VI Senior Indoor Club Championship in Maseru, Lesotho, bringing home a silver medal after finishing second on Saturday.
The Harare Volleyball Premier League champions fell to Zambia's Green Buffalos 2-3 in a super-charged and scintillating final that went into a decider over the weekend. However, despite the defeat in the final, NABA had already secured a continental finals berth together with Zimbabwe champions, UZ Wolves, who finished fourth in Lesotho.
Support Unit and Black Rhinos men settled for eighth and 11th place respectively. In the women’s category, reigning Zimbabwe champions, Support Unit, claimed ninth place, UZ Wolves finished in 11th position while Chinhoyi University of Technology were a place behind Wolves on number 12.
Harare Volleyball Association chairperson, Priestledge Nhamburo, commended the teams’ performance at the just ended games.
“It was a great hunt for Zimbabwe with great improvement compared to 2022. We congratulate all the teams on their hard work and commitment in lifting the Zimbabwe flag high,” Nhamburo told NewsDay Sport.
NABA opened their account like a raging fire winning their first two matches on identical 3-0 scorelines against Falcons from Zambia and Malawi’s Blue Eagles. They did not puttheir foot off the pedal, beating hosts’ Lesotho Defence Forces VI 1-3 to qualify for the quarterfinals with a game to spare.
NABA edged Botswana Defence Forces VI 3-2 in their final group stage match and dug deep to comeback from two sets to beat Escorpions of Angola 3-2 to qualify for the semis. A semifinal berth meant a passage to the Africa Champions scheduled for next year, but NABA did not rest on their laurels. They went on to correct Eswatini’s Correctional Sunrise 3-2 to set up a men’s final against eventual champions Green Buffalos.
UZ Wolves on the other hand lost their opening match against Angola’s Scorpions 1-3 but came back stronger winning three games on the trot. The Wolves beat Zambia’s Prison Leopards 3-1, dismissed Namibia Defence Forces 3-0 and beat Alianca from Mozambique 1-3. UZ Wolves dismissed Malawi’s Falcon 3-1 in the quarterfinals but lost the semifinal tie 1-3 to GreenBuffalos and the third-place playoff 3-1 against Correctional Sunrise of Eswatini to finish in fourth place.
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