At the Deccan Gymkhana courts here today, Fergusson, faced some stiff resistance from Maharashtra Institute of Technology (MIT) in the second set, but were overall too good for their opponents, defeating them 15-2, 15-6, 15-3.

Fergusson stream rolled in the first set, losing only two points against and disorganised MIT outfit. After a sluggish start, the MIT spikers nearly surprised their opponets by a making a valinat comeback bid in the second. Trailing 2-4, MIT started fighting bravely and were neck-to-neck till the score was 3-6 in Fergusson's favour. During this time, MIT forced six service changes and started posing threat to the opponents, with B Kaushik leading the challenge. However, experienced Harshad Ghaisasi and Rushikesh Deshmukh used their blocking and spiking prowesses to the fullest and turned the tables for the champions, silencing the MIT fightback.

Reading MIT duo -- Sachin Karale and Satyajit Joshi's inability of judging the ball, Harshad and Rushikesh's kept directing most of the smashes towards these two. The result being, Fergusson were serving for the set at point 6. The demoralised MIT with the fear of going 0-2 down, lost the set in confusion and ended up in argument among themselves. Both Mohit Navare and Satyajit latched on to the ball to return at the center, which saw them collide. Seeing the ball go out, Mohit lost his temper and used abused his partner, blaming Satyajit for the loss. Thereafter, the MIT clan was never united, conceding nine points in the third which ended their campaign with 3-15 loss.

In another semi-final, previous year's runners-up Modern College defeated Sir Parshuramians College 15-6, 15-7, 15-6.

Earlier, the tournament proceedings were hampered, when Poona College were asked to pull out from the quarters (against MIT), after one of their players, Taher Shaikh was found to be an outsider. Professor Parkhe informed that the Poona College included Taher, who works for Muslim Cooprative Bank. ``After doubts, we asked Taher to show his identification, which he faild to. '' Poona College captain Kazi Ameenuddin agreed to withdraw from the meet, before the organisers could take a legal action.