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Leonard Ncube , Victoria Falls Reporter 

FIVE clubs from Zimbabwe and Namibia battled it out in the Shalom Summer volleyball tournament in Victoria Falls on Saturday. The tournament was organised by Shalom Ballers volleyball club with the aim of perfecting itself through competitive game time towards entry into the national volleyball league.

Participating teams in both male and female categories were Zambezi Namibia from the neighbouring country, Shalom Ballers, Raiders, Mosi Fliers (all from Victoria Falls) and Hurricanes from Bulawayo.

Botswana and Zambia teams failed to turn up for the tournament, which is arguably the only competitive contest to be held in the resort town lately.

Shalom Ballers secretary general Memory Mdluli said the tournament was organised to test waters and perfect players.

“We organised the tournament to try and up our game as we aim to get into the national league. We wanted to use the tournament to strengthen our team by playing teams from out of Victoria Falls.

“We had no sponsors and so used affiliation fees from clubs.

“It wasn’t easy to prepare especially considering the economic situation hence hosting foreign teams was a challenge in terms of securing their accommodation and taking care of them but we managed to pull through,” said Mdluli.

She said Shalom Ballers, which was established by Shalom Primary School in 2017 was impressed by the level of competition which gave them a challenge to want to work hard to get into the national league.

Besides the Saturday tournament, Victoria Falls this year hosted an Independence Day tournament which was sponsored by CBZ in April  and a social tournament sponsored by Boma Dinner and Drum Show.

Hurricanes from Bulawayo were the eventual winners in the ladies’ category after beating Shalom Ballers 2-1. Mosi Fliers finished third.

Shalom revenged in the men’s category where they emerged winners after winning all their sets.

In second and third position were Zambezi Namibia and Hurricanes respectively.

The teams played in a round robin format.

In the run up, Shalom Ballers beat Raiders 2-0 while Zambezi Namibia fell to Shalom Ballers 2-1. Shalom Ballers also beat Mosi Fliers and Hurricanes 2-1 and 2-0 respectively. – @ncubeleon