Staff Reporter
Swakopmund
The Dome in Swakopmund turned into a volleyball fortress last weekend as 25 teams from across Namibia competed in the 2018 Bank Windhoek DOC tournament hosted by the Namibia Volleyball Federation.
The tournament saw Khomas Nampol and Namibian Defence Force (NDF) claim victory in the men and women divisions respectively.
A total of N$21,000 in prize money was at stake as teams from Oranjemund, Katima Mulilo, Rundu and Windhoek battled it out to claim the bragging rights.
Women’s
division
In the women’s division, NDF cruised to the top of Group A and secured a semi-final spot after a five-game winning streak. Eleven Warriors snatched second spot and also made it into the semi-finals.
Khomas Nampol emerged victorious after tightly contested Group B matches. Deutscher Turn und Sportverein (DTS) fought hard throughout the group stages and finished in second place. Both teams made it into the semi-finals.
Men’s division
The men’s division produced highly contested matches throughout the group stages. Seven teams in each group competed for the top two spots in order to advance to the semi-finals.
In Group A, last year’s champions, Khomas Nampol, once again put up a strong performance and topped the table. NamPower took the second spot after they defeated first-time participants Oranjemund and Eleven Warriors.
Group B offered an even tighter competition with veteran champions NDF clinching enough victories to secure the top spot.
Three teams scored 13 points in this group and it was decided that Navy from Walvis Bay was the team to move into the semi-finals due to more games won. This left teams such as University of Namibia’s Main Campus and Katima Mulilo Campus disappointed.
Semi-finals
The women’s semi-finals saw NDF battle it out against DTS in an intense thriller, which NDF eventually won. Khomas Nampol beat Eleven Warriors and secured a spot in the final.
In the men’s semi-finals, Khomas Nampol joined their female counterparts in the final after they defeated Navy. NamPower faced NDF whom they beat to move into the final. In the women’s division final, NDF defeated Khomas Nampol 1:3 (19:25; 17:25; 25:19; 14:25). The men’s final lived up to its high expectations and was a thriller, which went the whole length of five sets.
The more experienced Khomas Nampol was faced with a fierce and aggressive NamPower that demonstrated great teamwork. After both teams had won two sets each, a tie-break was the deciding factor.
Khomas Nampol’s experience came to the rescue as NamPower made too many errors towards the end, giving the set away 13:15.
Winners in both competitions walked away with trophies, gold medals and N$5,000 in prize money, and the runners-up received silver medals and N$3,000 each. The bronze medals went to DTS (women), and NDF (men) secured N$2, 000 in prize money, while the fourth placed Eleven Warriors (women) and Navy (men) were awarded N$1,000 each. President of the Namibian Volleyball Federation, Hilary Imbuwa, described the tournament as a great success: “With the help of Bank Windhoek as our main sponsor we were once again able to organise and execute this great competition and send the teams off with their well-deserved prize money.
“For the first time ever we had live online coverage of the event through our media partner TeeVee Namibia, which was an amazing advertisement for our sport and everybody involved in making this tournament a great success.”
The DOC Open Tourney has a long history in the Namibian volleyball landscape and has for years been the first major highlight of the indoor season.