The New Zealand men’s volleyball team recorded their first win at the Oceania Zonal Championship when they edged out Fijian Blues 3-2 at the Vodafone Arena, Suva yesterday.

The Blues, which is the second national men’s team took the game to the Kiwis right from the first set. They were able to counter the strong New Zealand side led by captain Ben Glue, but the men-in-black stood their ground to claim the set 25-17.

The Jope Tokalauvere captained-side came back strongly in the second and third sets with great spikes as they took them out 25-20, 25-19 respectively.

However, the Kiwis regrouped and hit back by claiming the final two sets 25-18 and 15-5.

New Zealand coach Colin Redpath said the Fijian Blues really scared them.

“It is a really good game but we got to play to win and need to work on a few more things like our blocks before the World Championship qualifiers start on Thursday.

“Fiji gave us a good run and for us it’s more trying to get into the rhythm of the tournament, we haven’t had a lot of games lately so we just need to take one game at a time,” Redpath said.

Tokalauvere commended the efforts of his players.

“Our aim was to compete in the zonal championship and will be competitive against teams like Solomon Islands and Cook Islands but we gave New Zealand a good run today. We were not expecting to give them a five set game so I want to thank the boys for all their efforts,” Tokalauvere said.