2007 Women’s World Championship- Day one

Kenya lost against the Samba Dancers in Straight sets

Hamamatsu, Japan, November 3, 2007 -: Brazil had few problems as they dominated Kenya 25-16, 25-7, 25-14 in their second World Cup match on Saturday to win their second match in a raw and improve their record in the competition to 2-0, while Kenya dropped to 0-2.

If Brazil thought that Kenya would be pushovers, they soon found they were faced with some fierce shots from the Africans. Dorcas Ndasaba and Edna Rotich put down some crushing spikes in the early stages and the Brazilians had to get their game going to edge in front 8-5 at the first technical timeout. But after that, errors plagued the Kenyans, allowing Brazil to widen their lead, with the assistance of big spikes from Fabiana Claudinho and Paula Pequeno. But after the second technical timeout, the Kenyans started to find their form and their defense was outstanding, with Rotich doing particularly well. But it was not enough to hold off the power of Brazil and Pequeno delivered several telling blows, with an especially big spike for set point. Rotich then sent a spike long to end the set.

Brazil found life a little more comfortable at the start of the second set, partly due to errors by the Kenyans. They were 8-2 up at the first technical timeout and 16-4 at the second. Walewska Oliveira planted a couple of big hits and Jaqueline Carvalho sent down a characteristically huge spike. With the Kenyans finding it hard to deal with the Brazilians easy skills and awesome power, it was all one-way traffic. Brazil coach Ze Roberto brought on some of his second-string players and they were still too strong for Kenya. Eighteen-year-old Natalia Pereira delivered a meaty crosscourt spike for set point and the Brazilians got lucky -- not that they needed it -- when Jaqueline's serve hit the net and rolled over.

Kenya tried hard to hold off the yellow tide in the third set and Ndasaba managed to deliver some resounding spikes as they narrowed the score to 7-4. But they were still plagued by errors, and their receiving was especially weak, particularly in the face of some power serves from Welissa Gonzaga. Kenya had a mini-revival at 16-7 when Ndasaba scored a couple of winners and they managed to close the gap to 16-11, but that was as close as they would get. Walewska made a smart tip over to set up match point and it was all over when Diana Khisa planted a spike into the net.

Photo Caption

Kenya Captain Dorcas Ndasaba in struggling action to save the ball

By Tarek Al-Adwar from Japan