Saturday

Rayon Sports 3-0 KireheAPR 0-3 Rayon SportsINATEK 3-0 KireheINATEK 3-0 APR Rayon Sports 0-3 INATEK

Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Education of Kibungo (INATEK) were crowned the national volleyball league champions on the final day of the season on Saturday at Amahoro indoor stadium.

The Ngoma-based team were too strong for their closest title challengers, Rayon Sports, who came into the final weekend leading the table.

INATEK head coach Dominic Sesonga Ntawangundi praised his team’s performance after having come from behind on points to win their first ever national league title against Rayon Sports, who led the table from the opening weekend.

"Every player gave his best to win this title, I’m so happy. It’s our first league title since the club was formed in 2009,” said an evidently excited Ntawangundi.

He added, "I’m happy with the performance of my team throughout the whole season, and I want to congratulate them and our fans, who were behind us at every match.”

The INATEK team captain, Olivier Ntagengwa, who played a key role in the team’s triumph, said, "This is a great achievement for the club, we are all happy to win the league after trailing Rayon Sports the whole season, we knew we had to stay focused until the last match.”

In other matches, INATEK beat Kirehe 3-0 and APR 3-0 to collect nine points before the title decider against Rayon Sports, which either team needed to win to be crowned champions.

Fidele Nyirimana’s Rayon Sports, beat Kirehe (3-0) and APR (3-0) to finish in second position with 64 points in the first two matches while INATEK finished with 66 points.

Nyirimana, who won the league title with the National University of Rwanda in 2013 before joining the then newly formed Rayon Sports, congratulated INATEK, saying they deserved to win because they were consistent throughout the season.

"Our opponents were too strong for us. They didn’t make any mistake; we have to agree that they were the better team the whole season,” he said.

Outgoing champions APR finished in third position with 41 points while Kirehe finished in fourth with 28 points.

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