Losing the opening match was an eye-opener and Chennai Spartans will come back strongly in Thursday’s clash against Black Hawks Hyderabad in the ongoing inaugural RuPay Pro Volleyball League in Kochi, team manager Nadarajan Jayakumar has said. Spirited Spartans went down to Calicut Heroes on Sunday but not before winning the third set and pushing the opposition in the final two sets. “I thought our boys rallied impressively after losing the opening two sets,” former India player Jayakumar said. “We had our moments in the final two sets but failed to convert them. I’m sure we will grab our chances in the coming matches,” he added. The organisers introduced Super Serve and Super Point to make the games faster and spectator friendly in the inaugural PVL.

Each ace served gives the serving team two points and is called Super Serve. Each team can call for a Super Point once every set. If the team calling the Super Point wins the point it will get two points and if the team loses the point the opposing team gets a two-point advantage. However, the Super Point can only be taken before a team reaches 11 points and cannot be carried forward.“It has made the games a lot more exciting but I feel it will take a while for the teams to adapt, especially to the Super Point,” Jayakumar said. Spartans belong to the House of KALS, a passionate and committed corporate entity that has been involved in developing volleyball in Tamil Nadu for over three decades. Matches in the six-team all-play-all League stage are being played to five sets of 15 points each with the first to reach 15 winning the set. The Playoffs featuring the top-four will see each set played to 25 points. The winning team is awarded 2 points. If a team wins by 5-0, it will be called a whitewash and the winning team will be awarded 3 points for the same.