Qatar Cup champions Al Rayyan Club and runners-up El Jaish set up an Emir’s Cup Volleyball Championship semi-final showdown as both handed their rivals a 3-0 crushing on Tuesday.
At the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Arena in Al Sadd, El Jaish faced some spirited resistance from Al Shamal Club in the last two sets before completing a 25-19 25-22 25-21 victory.
Al Rayyan Club, who recently needed five sets to overpower the Army team in five sets, knocked out Al Sadd Club, using their new outside hitter Tine Urnaut of famous Italian club Trentino Diatec.
Twice Urnaut has been declared the best outside spiker in the European events – one for his national team and second time for Trentino.
Urnaut replaced Polish Zbigniew Bartman and combined well with Cuban cum Polish star Wilfredo Leon Venoro to launch a fierce double-sided attack on Al Sadd and clinched the match by 25-15 25-17 25-18.
The 27-year-old Slovenian Urnaut had a fine season last year, grabbing two medals in the prestigious continental events. He bagged the gold medal of the European League and silver medal in the European Championship.
Urnaut has played most of his career in Italy, beginning with Copra Piacenza in 2009. After switching to Poland next year, he returned to play two seasons for Umbria Volley and Callipo Vibo Valentia.
After that he went to Turkey to help Arkas Izmir in the 2013-14 season. Before joining Trentino last season, he spent one year with Top Volley Latina. He was part of the silver medal-winning Trentino Diatec who lost the Champions League final to Russian Zenit Kazan 2-3 last month.
El Jaish, who have yet to figure in an Emir’s Cup final, had a smooth start against Al Shamal and then they went on to build on the momentum, clinching the next two to wrap up the win in one hour and 12 minutes.
Oreol Camejo and Robertlandy Simon drilled some brilliant smashes into the Al Shamal Club court, collecting 19 and 18 points, respectively, for the winners. Camejo’s 19 had 15 from smashes, while Simon’s 14 spikes could not be retrieved.
Bojan Dokic also joined the fun and gained nine points for the Army team.
Renato was the most successful player for Al Shamal, getting 11. Ruslan and Reynold landed 8 each. Ibrahim had seven.