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KCB, Pipelines and Ahly
secured semifinal tickets
 Cairo,
Egypt, April 5, 2007-: The big favorite teams Kenya commercial
Bank and Pipelines of Kenya and Ahly of Egypt achieved their
second victory in a raw in the second day of the twenty second
Women’s African Clubs Champions Championship in Cairo Stadium
complex hall in Cairo, Egypt on Thursday to secure the semifinal
spot of the competition. Prisons of Ethiopia were the surprise
of the day not only for their first victory over Injs of
Cameroon, but also for the emerging performance in the match.
The Kenyan teams KCB and Pipelines defeated Water sports of
Ethiopia and Al Shams of Egypt respectively while Ahly smashed
Mafolofolo of Botswana all in straight sets.
The match was attended by many home spectators and CAVB
officials led by 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 continued their winning
rhythm and achieved their second victory in the competition over
Water sports of Ethiopia 3-0 (25-12, 25-17, 25-16) in 59 minutes
in Pool B. The Kenyans secured a semifinal spot with a win- loss
ratio of 2-0 and play for the top of the pool against Ahly on
Friday in an early final similar to that of 2006 competition.
The Kenyan team was superior in all volleyball skills all
through the match as the
head coach Paul Bitok applied his strategy of using some of his
players in different positions. The team used the skills of the
star Docoras Ndasaba and Nafula Palanga to go through Water
sports Block and succeeded by their block of Palanga and Margret
Indakala to stop the attacks of the Ethiopian team.
 KC
Bank head coach was happy with both the victory and the
performance and quickly he began to put his measures for the
important clash against Ahly on Friday. “I’m happy to be the
first team to qualify to the semifinal and that mean we will be
between the best four teams and also happy with the performance
of my players who did well in applying my new strategy of
playing in different positions than they used to. I’m preparing
now to defeat Ahly to finish at the top of the pool or other
wise we will be in front of our Arc Rivals Pipelines in the
semifinal.” Said Bitok.
Water sports head coach Ebrahim Seiman was happy with his team
performance though he lost his two matches in the competition
till now but actually he feels that his country is going in the
sound way towards the big continental competitions.
Pipelines of Kenya used their big guns Catherine Wanjiru the
match scorer with 16 points and Esther Jepkosgei who scored 11
points to set their second victory in a raw in Pool A over the
organizers Al Shams of Egypt 3-0 (25-14, 25-20, 25-18) in 69
minutes and secured the second ticket to the semifinal from Pool
A. The Kenyan team that has the record of trophies of this
competition began the match by the most experienced players
Catherine Wanjiru, Leonidas Kamende and EstherJepkosgei as they
dominated the first set all through and win easily 25- 14. The
second set showed improved backline defense and reception that
allowed them to build up the attacks to the middle blocker Ingy
El Shamy and the left attacker Dina Assal. Shams became near in
points but the experienced Kenyan players ended the situation at
the end 25-20. The third set showed the best performance for the
organizers as they improved their block against the strong
attacks of Pipelines so they led 8-3 before the Kenyan team
regained the rhythm of the attacks to draw 10-10. Both teams
continued the thriller match till the last draw 17-17 when the
strong attacks of Esther and Catherine to win the set 25-18.
“I’m happy to qualify to the semifinal and to play this
interesting match against the promising Shams team. Actually
this team plays good volleyball and were near us in the match,”
Said Pipelines head coach David Lung’aho. “I respected the
opponent so I used the senior players like Esther and Catherine
to win and to give them the competition experience before the
critical matches in the finals.” He added.
Shams head coach Hamdy El Shamy referred the result to the big
difference in experience between his team and pipelines that had
the record of victories in this competition. “We didn’t play
well today because simply we met a much strong team and we
missed the performance of our star Ingy El Shamy because she was
ill yesterday. We want to win our match tomorrow against Injs of
Cameroon to qualify to the semi final which will be good result
for us.” He said.
Al
Ahly of Egypt needed only 56 minutes to clinch a straight sets
victory over Mafolofolo of Botswana (25-14, 25-17, 25-15) in a
repeated semi final of the last competition in Mauritius 2006.
The winners used their strong service to stop the attacks of
Botswana team till they controlled the first set 2514 easily
after a group of skilful setting from the experienced setter
Yosra Abdel Karim. Mafoflofolo improved in the second set after
their better reception and after the injury of Ahly setter. The
Botswana champions used also the tall centre player Tsholofelc
in the fast combinations. Ahly improved their reception and
digging through the libero Sara Talaat to build the attacks to
the left attackers Sherihan Sameh and Noran El Maghawry and so
they won the set 25-17 but with more points for there opponents.
Ahly coach Raouf Abdel Kader changed some of the standing
players and used others to goive them the experience like Nahala
Sameh, the setter Miral Raouf and Miral Raouf and he could win
the third set 25-15.
“Now the competition is defined between the Kenyan and Egyptian
teams in the semi final,” Said Ahly Head coach Raouf Abdelkader.
“The match tomorrow against KC Bank is only to escape from
meeting Pipelines in the semi final and to postpone this to the
final. I think we will miss two important players Yosra and Nada
due to injury during this match but I hope here colleague do
their job tomorrow if they fail to recover.” He added.
Mafolofolo Head Odisitse Keotsene stated that his team played
much better than the first match especially in reception and
block. He added that his team is still learning from the
participation in these big competitions.
 Prisons
team of Ethiopia showed the promising face of the Ethiopian
volleyball when they smashed Injs of Cameroon 3-0 (25-17, 25-18,
25-20) in 60 minutes after superior performance from the
Ethiopian youngsters who proved that their country will come
soon to compete for a good place in the continental women’s
volleyball. The winners used the efficient spikes of their wing
spiker Petros Genet who was the match scorer with 14 points to
win easily the first set 25 -17 in 19 minutes. The spirit of the
Prisons team increased after their first set win so they
increased the speed of their attacks led by the skillful setter
Giegzi Tersit and began to apply the fast attacks to win the
second set also 25-18 in 21 minutes. The third set was the best
for Injs team as they improve4ed their block and backline
defense against the attacks of prisons and used the spikes of
Christine Ambassa the right attacker to narrow the point deficit
all through the set until Prisons used again Genet and Kebede
Fanu to penetrate their opponent defense and win the set 25-20
and the match in straight sets.
The head coach of prisons Lemma Teshome was cheered after the
match and satisfied with his team performance after he was sad
in the first day following his defeat against Shams. He stated
that his team applied his strategy in this match so they had
their first victory.
On the other hand Injs head coach Armand Nyatcho saw that his
team is gaining the experience this time because they don’t have
mature players having the international experience to compete.
Day Three Programme:
Pool A: Pipelines (Kenya) vs. Prisons
(Ethiopia), Al Shams (Egypt) vs. Injs (Cameroon).
Pool B: Mafolofolo (Botswana) vs. Water sports (Ethiopia), KC
Bank (Kenya) vs. Ahly (Egypt) |
