Rayon Sports volleyball club defeated rivals Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Education of Kibungo (INATEK) in a four-set thriller on Saturday to move top of the national volleyball league table standings.
In a fully-packed Amahoro indoor stadium, the Blues lost narrowly the first set (25-27) to the Ngoma-based varsity side but Rayon Sports fans kept cheering on Fidele Nyirimana’s team, a fact that enabled last year’s first runners-up to come from one set behind to win the clash 3-1.
Rayon Sports won the second set easily (25-18), but the last two sets were tightly fought with the former eventually winning them (25-23) and (25-23) respectively.
In an interview with Times Sport, Rayon Sports Coach Fidele Nyirimana praised his team’s strong mentality after defeating their title rivals in successive games. Rayon Sports defeated APR 3-0 last week.
“We are doing great, a win over Inatek plus last weekend’s victory over APR positions us among this season’s title contenders. Well done to my players. However, we need to be more focused than ever before, there is no time to relax neither is there room for complacency,” Nyirimana said.
Going into the match, Inatek (15 points) were leading Rayon (14points) by one point, a win for Rayon Sports saw them dethroning last year’s league second runners-up at the helm of new league standings with Rayon topping the table with 18 points, one ahead of Inatek.
Elsewhere, defending champions APR thrashed Umubano Blue Tigers (UBT) 3-0.
Champions APR are 3rd in the league with 16 points.
Saturday
Rayon 3-1 Inatek
APR 3-0 UBT
Sunday
APR 3-0 KVC
By Richard Bishumba, The New Times