Nepal Police Club maintained their winning run at the Bagmati Province New Diamond Club Open Women’s Volleyball Tournament after they beat APF Club in the departmental derby on Thursday.

Both Police and APF had already advanced into the finals of the four-team round robin competition coming into Thursday's last round match.

Police started brightly at the Kirtipur Multipurpose Covered Hall winning the first set 25-18, but lost the second after APF brilliantly fought back to claim the set 14-25.

But a Police side led by former national player Kopila Upreti prevailed against their departmental rivals, winning the last two sets 25-17 and 25-20 that also ended APF’s unbeaten run.

The win means Police top the table with nine points. APF are second with six points.

Both Police and APF were without their senior players, who are in the national closed camp preparing for the delayed Asian Games. The Games were scheduled to be held from September 10-25 in Hangzhou, China but the event was postponed until 2023 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

APF will get a chance to avenge their defeat when they meet again in Saturday's final.

Meanwhile, New Diamond Academy pulled off their first victory with a 25-22, 25-10, 25-14 win over winless Paropakar Girls Hostel.

New Diamond and Paropakar will meet again in the third-place playoff on Saturday.

The winners will bag a purse of Rs500,000 while the runners-up will receive Rs250,000. The third-placed and fourth-placed teams will walk away with Rs125,000 and Rs75,000, respectively.

The player-of-the-tournament will get Rs25,000 while the five best players (best spiker, best setter, best blocker, best server and best defender) and the best coach will be rewarded with Rs10,000 each.

The tournament has been organised with aims to collect funds for building a volleyball court for the New Diamond Club. The teams will need to return 20 percent of their prize money as support, according to the organisers.