Jakarta Electric loses opening game

Jakarta Electric loses opening game

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Women's defending champions Jakarta Electric PLN made an
disappointing start in its title defense at the 2005 Proliga
Volleyball championship on Friday.

The team -- with many players from last year's winning team
missing this time round -- went down 2-3 (25-23, 19-25, 25-23,
20-25, 11-15) to Jakarta Monas Bank DKI.

Jakarta Electric made a perfect start in the first game thanks
to a series of solid spikes from Brazilian star player Aline
Pereira.

But the team went off the boil in the second game after
leading 11-7. Jakarta Electric's players made too many unforced
errors, often failing to return serve and sending their spikes
out of bounds.

Jakarta Monas, through the efforts of Condace Magname of the
U.S, seized the opportunity to win the second game.

In the third game, still relying on the one-woman-show of
Pereira's prowess, Jakarta Electric found its rhythm once again
to win.

The fourth game was a repeat of the second, with the errors
coming fast and furious from Jakarta Electric.

They played a desperate game of catch-up in the decider,
reaching 4-7 and 7-12, before finally letting the match slip
away.

Jakarta Monas head coach Yopie H said the game hinged on the
quality of the local players on his team.

"I think they have a good foreign player (Pereira), but she
doesn't get support from her local teammates. If they had one or
two good local players, they could win the match," he said at the
postgame press conference.

Jakarta Electric head coach Victor Laiyan admitted that his
team, with new players making up 60 percent of its ranks, was
still erratic, but he praised the fighting spirit they showed.

"We played well today. Our local players have good fighting
spirit, but they aren't mentally strong yet as most of them are
new players."

Earlier in the day, women's club Jakarta BNI 46 defeated Yogya
Tomkins 3-2 (21-15, 25-22, 25-10, 23-25, 15-10).

Jakarta is hosting the first group of Proliga games until
Sunday. The series moves to Bandung on March 11-13, then returns
to Jakarta (March 18-20), before heading to Gresik in East Java
(April 8-10), Jakarta (April 15-17) and Yogyakarta (April 22-24).