Nepal's women national volleyball team edged Uzbekistan in a five-set thriller to defend AVC Asian Central Zone Women's Volleyball Challenge Cup at the Shaheed Suhrawardy National Indoor Stadium in Dhaka on Tuesday.

Nepal, the winners of the last edition in 2019 in Bangladesh, were made to struggle for victory over the same opponents despite straight sets win in the group stage. Nepal won the game 26-24, 24-26, 25-15, 22-25, 15-10 in the second tier inter-country Asian championships organised by the Asian Volleyball Confederation.

Nepal, led by captain Aruna Shahi and coach Jagadish Bhatta, had marched into the final securing top finish in the round robin league format contest to eventually win their second international trophy. They have won all five league matches to maintain a cent percent winning streak in the six-team contest where the top two teams after the league round were assured of final place.

Following the victory, Nepal's coach Bhatta said: "As the defending champions, the girls played with a must win pressure. We had to struggle after we conceded points in receiving and service which prolonged the match into the fifth set. But we are happy that we finally won the second international trophy for the national team. I thank everyone who helped us to reach here."

Uzbekistan, the tournament debutants who had gone down 25-20, 25-23, 25-14 in the group stage, started with an offensive approach and took lead from the beginning in the first set until Nepal fought back to level scores at 18 before they won 26-24 in a tiebreaker.

In the second set too, Uzbekistan took an early lead from the beginning and were leading 23-19 before their coach was sent off for unsporting behaviour. Nepal levelled with 24 points but eventually lost the set 26-24.

Nepal comfortably won the third set 25-15 after they collected eight continuous points from 10-11 to lead with 18-11. Uzbekistan took the match to the fifth set winning the penultimate set 25-12. In the decisive set, Nepal grabbed five points in a row after the scores were tied 8-8 to lead with 13-10 and ultimately won with 15-10.

En-route to the final, Nepal had overcome the first two sets deficit against Sri Lanka in their opening game to win in 3-2 sets while they have pulled off straight sets wins over Maldives, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan in the league stage. In the last edition, Nepal had not lost a single set but they were made to struggle for 3-2 sets win in two matches this time.

Sri Lanka claimed the third place playoff match defeating Kyrgyzstan in straight sets.

Meanwhile, Nepal's men's team finished fourth in the tournament after they lost the third place playoff in straight sets of 25-15, 25-18, 25-22 against Uzbekistan.

Sri Lanka won the men’s title defeating hosts Bangladesh in straight sets of 28-26, 25-20, 25-20.