LAHORE, March 16: Wapda, with their stunning defeat over defending champions Army in the last of the quarter-final league matches, qualified for the semi-final of the 43rd national volleyball championship here at the Wapda Sports Complex on Sunday.

Army, however, also reached the final four grade as they had won the first quarter-final league match against Punjab on Saturday. Police and NWFP are the other two semi-finalists.

In the pre-final that is to be played on Monday, Army will be locking horns against Police, while Wapda take on NWFP.

Wapda carved out a win for themselves as the soldiers, despite putting on a great fight, failed to keep their unbeaten status in the championship. Wapda fought for almost two hours to complete an honourable 3-2 win, the score being 21-25, 25-22, 25-18, 21-25, 16-14.

Powerful spiking by Irfan Nawaz, Imran Sultan and Farooq Khan played a vital role in Wapda’s win.

After winning the first set, Army were comfortably leading by 18-13 in the second, before Wapda bounced back quickly.

Wapda caught up with Army at 18-all after which grabbing points one after the other they equalled at 20-20 before the winners grabbed two points to equalise the score to 1-1.

Wapda consolidated the position by winning the third set too, but Army were not ready to concede defeat easily and won the fourth to take the crucial match into the fifth set. A close fight for supremacy continued until Wapda won finally.

Earlier in the first match, Navy blasted Punjab in straight sets (25-19, 25-17 and 25-14) to book a place in the semi-final. Aamir Khan, Shuja Abbas and Mohammad Asif were outstanding for Navy. Meanwhile Adnan Pasha and Wasit Ali provided some resistance from the losing side.

Pakistan Air Force (PAF) ousted Pakistan Ordnance Factory (POF) 3-0 in another one-sided match. Mohammad Ismail and Riaz Khan played inspiringly for the winners while Ehsan Iqbal played well for the losing side.

Police earned an easy win against NWFP, the score being 25-19, 25-13, 25-18. But NWFP also made the last four after winning the first quarter-final league match against POF.