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apan’s team, Sakai Blazer, has collected the highest point at pool A in the preliminary round and is likely to advance to the next round of the 2011 Asian Men’s Club Volleyball tournament in Palembang, South Sumatra on Monday.

The Japanese club collected a total score of eight after defeating Afghan club Etisalat 25-10, 25-19, 25-6, on their third-day match on Monday.

Indonesian team, Bank Sumsel Babel, so far collected only five points after the host team was overpowered by the Chinese Tang Dynasty 22-25, 20-25, 18-25 in their match on Monday evening. The Indonesian team is in fourth position while Tang Dynasty and PTSC of Vietnam share the runner-up position in the pool on the same points, with seven.

Earlier in the day, PTSC defeated Uzbektelcom of Uzbekistan 25-15, 34-32, 18-15 in their match.

“The defeat had been predicted and they [Tang Dyansty] are obviously better than us,” the Indonesian national team coach, Dadang Sudrajat, said after the match. “However, I am satisfied that our players look more confident and I believe they’ve learned something from this tournament.”

The competition in Pool B is far tighter, as the four teams at the top of the pool share the same score of six. Al Rayyan of Qatar collected six points after defeating Talyp Sport from Turkemenistan in their Monday match, while Chang of Thailand beat Asia World Club of Myanmar, and also collected the same points on same day.

With only one last match on Monday night between Iran’s Paykan and Kazakhstan’s Amaty, the two clubs will probably end up in the top and runner-up spots of the pool.

The head of training at the national volleyball association, Jopie Hehanussa, predicted that Japanese club Sakai Blazer, and Chinese club, Tang Dynasty, will come out as the winner and the runner-up of pool A, while Iran and Kazakhsatan will come out at the top of pool B.

“If that happens, then we will see Iran and Japan in the final,” said Jopie.

The preliminary round will be concluded on Wednesday with the winner and the runner-up of each pool competing for the top four, while the teams that finish from third to sixth positions will compete for the rank of fifth to 12th .