Al Rayyan Club piled scripted a straight-set victory against Qatar Sports Club to complete their first leg of the QVA League in Doha on Saturday.
Al Shamal however started the new leg with a 3-2 upset win over Al Wakrah in another match with Henrique Costa and Rabel William collecting the bulk of points for the winners.
Al Rayyan Club were not able to finish the first leg earlier as some of their players were on the national team duty. They resumed the League action and built early gaps, before working on them to cruise to a 25-15, 25-20, 25-19 win in 68 minutes.
Outside hitter Marko Vukasinovic netted 13 points for Al Rayyan. Marcus ad 11 and middle player Belal Nabel Abunabot was also in double digits with 10. Marco Ferreira logged nine.
For Qatar Sports Club, Oughlef Youssef had a game-high 16. Samuel Walker contributed 11.
With their sixth win in nine matches, Al Rayyan have 20 points, the same as Police and Al Wakrah. Al Arabi lead the table with 25 points after winning all their nine games in a row. Al Ahli round out the top five with 15 points from five wins in nine matches.
Al Shamal piled a great deal of pressure on Al Wakrah, who had seven wins from 10 games prior to this one. After winning the first two sets at the same 25-23, Al Shamal faced a furious comeback bid from Al Shamal.
With Ivan Jose Fernandez Anez leading the fightback, supported by Hector Salerno, Tamsir Samb and Nikola Vasic, Al Shamal reeled off the next two sets to force the tie-breaker.
Al Shamal shot from 10-8 to 12-8 and moved along quickly to seal the set and their second victory in 10 matches so far. For Al Wakrah, this was their third loss in 10 games.
Costa was the best scorer for Al Shamal with 27, while William and Issa added 16 and 19 useful points.
For Al Wakrah, Anez was the leading contributor with 28. Salermo secured 16, while Vasic and Samb had 13 each.ResultsFirst leg
Al Rayyan beat Qatar Sports Club 3-0 (25-15, 25-20, 25-19) in one hour & eight minutes
Second leg
Al Shamal beat Al Wakrah 3-2 (25-23, 25-23, 25-20, 25-18, 15-9) in one hour & 51 minutes