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2007 Women's African Clubs
Champions Championship: Cairo- Egypt |
All Big Forces Achieved their first Victory
 Cairo,
Egypt, April 4, 2007-: All the big favorite teams achieved wide
victories over their opponent as the defending champions Kenya
Commercial Bank, the last competition runner up Al Ahly of Egypt
and the bronze medalists of the last competition Pipelines have
comfortable wins in the first day of the twenty second Women’s
African Clubs Champions Championship in Cairo Stadium complex
hall in Cairo Egypt on Wednesday. The organizers El Shams of
Egypt sets also the first ever victory in their first
participation in the African championships.
CAVB President Dr. Amr Elwani opened the competition in presence
of Ministry of Sports Representative, Control Committee
president Mrs. Fofana Aminata, CAVB Vice President Mr. Baba Sy,
CAVB representative Mr. Mory Keita, CAVB referee delegate Mr.
Mohamed Saidoune and CAVB Technical Director Mrs. Howyda Mondy.
The defending champions KC Bank of Kenya started the competition
in good form to show the opponents that they are coming to a new
title in their history as they defeated Mafolofolo of Botswana
3-0 (25-12, 25-14, 25-17) in 62 minutes in Pool B. The Kenyan
team used their prominent stars specially Docoras Ndasaba and
Margret Indakala to win the first set widely 25-12 and the
second set 25-14 using their disciplined backline defense and
good reception which ended usually by good attacks by the net.
Mafolofolo came to the match in the third set when they used
their opponent mistakes in reception and digging to build up the
attacks which were used by their attackers Gaoleseletse and
Tsholofelo successfully. They stayed near in the score 8-6 and
12-10 till the Kenyan team regained the rhythm and won the set
25-17 after their coach Paul Bitok made some substitutions.
“It is a good start for our team in the competition,” Said KC
Bank Head coach Paul Bitiok after the match. “I used some main
players in positions different than they used to play before to
test them before the critical matches in the competition because
we will play here every match under pressure of being the
defending champions. My star today was Docoras Ndasaba who did
very well in attacks.” Bitok added.
 Mafolofolo
Head Coach Odistise Keotsene stated that his team still has a
hope to qualify to the semifinal. “We had problems in reception
today that disturbed our tactics but we will improve in the
coming matches.” He said.
The last competition bronze medalists Pipelines of Kenya
clinched another fruitful victory for their country which has
alone more than half of the continental titles after they
defeated Injs of Cameroon in straight sets 25-10, 25-13, 25-17
in 49 minutes in Pool A. Pipelines dominated the first set
easily using their strong spikes of Cathrine Wanjiru the match
scores with 13 points and Lucy Chege and penetrated easily Injs
block to win the set 25-10. In the second set Injs improved they
reception but still Pipelines attacks was dominating and they
used their experience to win the set 25-13. The third set was
the best for Cameroon team as they improved their reception and
block against the experienced opponent and used their strong
spikes of Christine Ambassa their scorer in the match to narrow
the point deficit many times. Pipelines started to use the
experienced middle blocker Leonidas Kamende to dominate the net
and won the set 25-17.
Injs Coach Armand Nyatcho referred the defeat to lack of
experience in comparison to the Kenyans. “My team
 includes
only two players experienced with the international competitions
but the others are very young school girls who did their best
but need sometime to reach the international experience.” Said
Armand.
Pipelines Head Coach David Lung’aho said that he is very happy
to win 3-0 in the first match and he chooses his team captain
Catherine Wanjiru as the match star. “Our middle blocker didn’t
show their well known performance today and we hope to improve
in the next matches before we reach the critical matches in the
competition.” He said.
Al Ahly of Egypt who won four titles before, pulled of a
straight sets victory over Water Sports of Ethiopia 25-13,
25-18, 25-6 in 90 minutes in Pool A. In the first set Al Ahly
used their strong attackers Esther Dusu from position 2 and
Sherihan Sameh from position 4 to win many points and they used
also the weak reception to stop the Ethiopian attacks to win the
set 25-13. Water sports came to the match in the second set when
they used their strong spikers Loha Diniknesh and Addis Yodit to
reach to 8-6 in the first technical time out and 18-15 but Ahly
controlled the match after that through the middle blocker Mona
Badawy and the wing spiker Noran Elmaghawry and won the set
25-18. The professional Nigerian player in Ahly Esther Dusu did
well in the third set specially in spiking from position 2 aided
by the skillful setting of Yosra Abdelkarim to win the easiest
set 25-6.
Although he won in straight sets Ahly head Coach Raouf
Abdelkader was impressed with the performance of the Ethiopian
players. “Their standard was much improved than the last time
they participated in 2003. I’m happy to win the match in the
opening day because it will give us a push before the next more
difficult matches because this competition showed many teams
playing moderen volleyball.
Though he lost, Water sports head coach Ebrahim Seiman was happy
with his team performance against a big team like Ahly. “We
played a good game against a team full of experienced players
but we showed good volleyball specially Addis Yodit and the team
captain Abadi Mulubrehan.” He said.
 In
the most competitive match of the day El Shams of Egypt sets
their best ever victory over the promising Prisons of Ethiopia
in straight sets 25-20, 25-6, 25-16. The first set showed the
most exciting volleyball as result went very near till Shams
reach to 8-6 in the first technical time out after a group of
efficient spikes of Dina Assal and Ingy El Shamy. Prisons
improved their backline defense and used their middle blocker
Kebede Fanu and the wing spiker Dessie Rahel to maintain their
score near till 20-18 for Shams. The organizers succeeded
thereafter to win the set 25-20. The second set became one side
towards Shams as they led 10-0 using the frequent mistakes of
Prisons in reception. El Shams continued their strong spike
service of Assal and Dina El Bitar in the second set to win
easily 25-6. Shams continued using the spike service to lead 8-3
and 16-9. They won the third set 25-16 after some struggle from
prisons team.
Shams Head Coach Hamdy Elshamy was very happy with the victory
and his team performance especially in serving and spiking. He
said that the tactical spike service and the good backline
defense were the main factors for the victory.
On the other hand Prisons Head Coach wasn’t satisfied with his
team performance. “We had many problems in reception, blocking
and defense and so we missed many points by our mistakes.” He
said.
Day Two Programme:
Pool A: Injs (Cameroon) vs. Prisons (Ethiopia), Al Shams (Egypt)
vs. Pipelines (Kenya).
Pool B: KC Bank (Kenya) vs. Water sports (Ethiopia), Mafolofolo
(Botswana) vs. Ahly (Egypt)
Photo Caption:
Jury table
KC Bank in time out
KC Bank vs. Mafolofolo
Pipelines vs. Injs
Ahly vs. Water sports |
Al Ahly African Champions for the fifth time
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Ahly
and Pipelines to final Spot
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Purely
Egyptian and Kenyan Clashes in the
semifina
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KCB,
Pipelines and Ahly secured semifinal
tickets
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All Big Forces Achieved their first Victory
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The
Defending Champions KCB Meets Mofolofolo
of Botswana in the opening |
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9 teams compete for the trophy
in the strongest competition in History |
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KCB, Kenya Pipeline train
for the competition |
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By Tarek Al Adwar CAVB Press
Officer |
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