The Terengganu Turtles became the third team to be mauled by the Penang Black Panthers as the defending Sepak Takraw League (STL) champions continued their impressive start to the season on Sunday.

With the Kuala Lumpur Thunder and the ATM Guardians, the other teams unbeaten in the league so far, not playing until the following week, the Black Panthers took the opportunity to open up a gap at the top of the standings.

Unlike their match against the PDRM Defenders on Saturday, Penang unleashed 2018 Asian Games gold medalists Azlan Alias and Syahir Rosdi right off the bat against the Turtles, who were one of the only two teams to beat them last season, and secured a 2-0 win.



At the other end of the table, the Johor Tigris and the Selangor Pistons were still looking for a first win of the season after losing to the Kelantan Warriors and the Perak Bison 2-0 respectively.

The Tigris opted to start young tekong Nazmi Nasar ahead of the experienced Azman Abdul Hamid, which backfired on them as they lost the first set 21-15.



Azman was brought on for the second set to shake things up, which seemingly worked at first as they took a 6-3 lead.

However, the Warriors regained their momentum to take the second set 20-12.

As for the Pistons, they had good starts in the first and second sets, but the Bisons pulled off late rallies in both sets, thanks to tekong Hanif Rosli's strong services and striker's Fadzil Mustafa's spikes and outstanding defence, to take the win.



Meanwhile, the Melaka Titans, who had chalked up two losses, ensured they wouldn't join the Pistons and the Tigris at the bottom by earning a hard-fought win over the PDRM Defenders.



2018 STL Premier Round Three results
Melaka Titans beat PDRM Defenders [2-0 : 21-18, 21-14]
Kelantan Warriors beat Johor Tigris [2-0 : 21-15, 21-12]
Penang Black Panthers beat Terengganu Turtles [2-0 : 21-12, 21-17]
Perak Bison beat Selangor Pistons [2-0 : 21-12, 21-14]