Bangkok, Thailand, February 18, 2024 – Nakhon Ratchasima Huione QminC VC made history on Sunday to become the Thailand’s first volleyball club to sweep both men’s and women’s titles in the Thailand Volleyball League for two times in succession, with their men’s team producing comeback 3-2 win against Diamond Food Fine Chef – Air Force in the thrilling showdown for the remarkable undefeated 2023-24 season.
In the men’s event, reigning champions Nakhon Ratchasima, fielding a strong lineup including Thailand national team player Kissada Nilsawai and three import players – Islomjon Sobirov and Azizbek Kuchkorov from Uzbekistan and Halim Farhan from Indonesia, overcame a dismal first-set loss to power past the gallant Diamond Food Fine Chef – Air Force in thrilling five-setter 16-25, 25-21, 25-11, 21-25, 15-6 to retain their title.
The invincible run in the three-month-long tournament stretched the team’s victory to nine in total. Nakhon Ratchasima, which finished impressive fourth place in the 2021 Asian Men’s Club Championship on home soil to their name, captured their unprecedented Thailand League title in the 2007-08 season and continued their brilliant performance to repeat their astonishing feats in following eight seasons – 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15, 2017-18, 2019-20, 2020-21, 2022-23 and 2023-24.
Struggling to live up to their expectations, Nakhon Ratchasima made a poor start to go down 16-25 in the opening set of the showdown against the well-organized Diamond Food, but turned the electric atmosphere in the Nimibutr Gymnasium into one of absolute joys with 25-21, 25-11 wins in the next two sets.
Diamond Food, also steered by three import players – Russian Iurii Kruzhkov, Japanese Kouhei Yanagisawa and Indonesian Yuda Maerdiansyah Putra, were well aware that they needed to approach them with the right mindset, if they wanted to emerge with the win in the fourth set.
Thus, Diamond Food came up big in the set and were incredibly dominant to lead commandingly 23-19. As Nakhon Ratchasima tightened their defence to gain one crucial point, the 200cm-tall Kruzhkov produced an effective drop shot to hand Diamond Food the set point at 24-20. The team allowed the strongest rivals only one more point to wrap up the set 25-21 and even it at 2-2.
In the tie-breaker, Nakhon Ratchasima, riding the momentum and the inspiration coming from the fantastic fans on the stands, broke away on a 4-1 run and never looked back. The lead was as wide as…
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