By Francis Ajuonuma
After guiding her team, Plateau State volleyball men beat their Bayelsa State counterparts yesterday in the ongoing National Sports Festival at the Alake Sports Centre, Coach Lydia Ashoms says her target is to win gold medal.
Plateau State won the keenly contested encounter 3-2 at 25-20, 23-25, 25-22, 22-25 and 16-17 to qualify for the quarter-finals.
They had earlier defeated Delta 3-0 to fire a warning signal to other teams.
In her post match interview, an elated Ashoms attributed Plateau’s victory over Bayelsa to the stability in the team and confidence of her players, who have featured in the national team.
” I think stability was our weapon. My team, most of the players are strong players, as in international players. So I think they were able to handle the emotions and the tension of the game.
“At one-time It was looking like we were losing but we were still stable. The other things were not going the way we wanted at the end of the day, we were able to get ourselves back. A much better game,” she said.
“The gold, of course, yes. That’s our target. So we are moving to the quarter-finals, which we are expecting should be a 3-0,” she added.
Responding to the opposition presented by Bayelsa State, Ashoms admitted that they are a strongside to play against but lacked experience as they were just playing the for fun.
“They really came out strong. They came out with a great plan. With the mind to play what they can.
They were just having fun playing what they can play. Because I didn’t necessarily see a tactical play.
“Though they have a star player that is very experienced and they use him well, our experience saw us through, she added.
Meanwhile, in a women’s beach volleyball match of the ongoing 22nd National Sports Festival, Nasarawa outplayed Rivers state by 2-0.
