New Diamond Sports Club dethroned all previous five-edition champions Nepal Armed Police Force (APF) Club to clinch National Women’s Volleyball Tournament in a five-set thriller at the Dasharath Stadium covered hall in Tripureshwar on Tuesday.

The entertaining match saw New Diamond claim 15-9 victory in the decisive set after the finalists had a share of two-set wins each with the new champions winning the first and third sets.

The scores in the first-four sets read 28-26, 21-25, 25-22, 24-26 as New Diamond conquered the crown remaining undefeated in the tournament. They had won all three group-stage matches in the four-team contest to come into the final as table toppers and a strong favourites.

New Diamond had made it to the final for the first time in the tournament which had been an all-department final for the last five years. New Diamond’s run in the whole tournament was largely shaped by an all-round show of spiker Pratibha Mali who was also declared the best player of the tournament and collected a purse of Rs50,000 and her team-mate Pragati Nath collected player-of-the-match award. She received Rs10,000.

It was a day to forget for APF, who not only lost their crown but also witnessed one of their key players Niruta Thagunna stretchered off after injuring herself in the fourth set.

The win made New Diamond richer by Rs300,000 and APF walked away with Rs150,000 along with trophies and certificates.

New Diamond’s spiker Salina Budha Magar was named emerging player and won Rs15,000 for her feat. Her teammates Pragati Nath won best setter, Salina Shrestha best libero and Kumar Rai best coach.

Runners up APF’s injured spiker Thagunna won best spiker, Hira KC best blocker and Saraswati Chaudhary best server awards. Each of the individual award winners collected a purse of Rs15,000 each and trophies.

Meanwhile, Nepal Police Club took home third place honours defeating Tribhuvan Army Club in straight sets with scores of 25-21, 25-21, 25-19. It was Police’s second victory over the arch-rival following 3-1 sets in the group stage encounter on Monday. Usha Bhandari of Police was declared the player-of-the-match.

Third place finishers Police took away Rs75,000 in the tournament organised by Sher Bahadur Memorial Foundation.