11th Indian Ocean Islands Games: Men’s volleyball – Third-place match |04 September 2023
11th Indian Ocean Islands Games: Men’s volleyball – Third-place match Seychelles fall short in third place play-off to Mauritius The men’s volleyball selection ended their campaign at the 11th Indian Ocean Islands Games, which officially came to an end ye
Seychelles fall short in third place play-off to Mauritius
The men’s volleyball selection ended their campaign at the 11th Indian Ocean Islands Games, which officially came to an end yesterday, empty-handed after losing the third-place play-off match to Mauritius on Saturday at the Ankatso Gymnasium in Antananarivo, Madagascar.
The match was a replica of the group B encounter between the two sides where Mauritius won 3-1.
With a bronze medal up for grabs, the Seychelles selection showed no commitment in the match which was entirely dominated by the Mauritians from the get-go, taking an 11-6 advantage, which was then extended to 20-11. Seychelles managed to score three more points, before Mauritius sealed the first set 25-14 for a 1-0 advantage.
In the second set, the Seychellois players showed a bit of willingness to fight, keeping the Mauritians close at 7-7, but then the latter shifted a gear to take a 13-9 advantage.
The boys of coach François Magloire fought back and caught up with the Mauritians to tie the score at 15-15. Eyeing the bronze medal after losing their title following their defeat to Reunion in the semifinal, the Mauritians stepped up their game to take a 21-16 lead and they only allowed Seychelles to score three more points before winning the set 26-19 for a 2-0 lead.
From that point, it was clear that Seychelles had lost all hope in catching up with their opponents who took a huge 14-6 lead, which they then extended to 18-9.
Seychelles managed to score only two more points in the set which ended 25-11 in favour of Mauritius who won the match 3-0 to win the bronze medal.
In the men’s final, Reunion came from two sets down to beat hosts Madagascar 3-2 (19-25, 19-25, 25-22, 25-23, 15-11).
Roland Duval