After snatching gold medals in the last two Southeast Asian Games, the Indonesian Volleyball Association (PBVSI) aims to move the men’s indoor volleyball team into Asia’s top four with the help of the nation’s growing professional league.
“We are aiming to dominate not only in Southeast Asia, but also in Asia. Looking at our improvement recently, we hope that we can get into the top four in Asia within the next two years,” PBVSI competition division head Hanny Surkatty said Friday.
Hanny, who is also director of the country’s main professional competition, Proliga Volleyball, was speaking at the media briefing for the competition’s third installment, which runs on March 13-14 in Jakarta.
Besides snatching the SEA Games gold medals last year and in 2007, the national men’s indoor volleyball team finished sixth at last year’s Asian Senior Volleyball Championship in Manila, one better than at the same tournament in 2007.
However, Hanny acknowledged that the women’s team, which last year brought home bronze from Laos, was lagging behind their male compatriots. “Compared to the male players, some of whom play professionally in Bahrain, Kuwait and Vietnam, the female players lack competition experience.”
Last year, the women’s team was ranked 13 out of the 14 teams participating at the Asian Senior Volleyball Championships in Hanoi.
Hanny pointed to the impact of a long-running local professional indoor volleyball competition such as the Proliga series, which is held for three months, in preparing them for Asia-level competitions.
“Proliga helps players keep improving both their technique and mentality in competitions as well as maintain discipline and handle pressures of the game,” Hanny said.
The winners of the Proliga will participate at the Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship from June 5-13 in Zhenjiang, China.
The seven regular series of Proliga in eight cities Solo, Yogyakarta, Jakarta, Palembang, Cirebon, Gresik, Malang and Bandung will be followed by two-round semifinal matches. The grand final will take place in Jakarta on May 9-16.
This year’s Proliga features five men’s team, which include defending champion Samator, Jakarta Sananta, Palembang Bank Sumsel, Bantul Yuso Gunadarma, and Jakarta BNI 46, as well as five women’s team, including defending champion Jakarta Electric PLN, Jakarta BNI 46, Gresik Petrokimia, Jakarta Popsivo Polwan and Jakarta TNI AU.
Last year’s runner-up Sananta club targeted to win its third series match on Saturday against the BNI 46 team to maintaining safe position in the top four throughout the regular series.
On the provisional standing after the second series in Yogyakarta last week, Sananta ranks third with one win and two losses. Bank Sumsel leads the standing with two wins and one loss out of three matches, trailed by Samator that won all of its two matches.
Meanwhile, defending champion Electric PLN currently leads the women’s team provisional standing with two wins and one loss out of its three matches. In second place is TNI AU team, with Petrokimia in third.
