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Al Ahly African Champions for the fifth time
 Cairo,
Egypt, April 10, 2007-: Ahly of Egypt returned the trophy of the
twenty second Women’s African Clubs Champions Championship back
to Egypt after 4 years following their thriller victory over
Pipelines of Kenya in a fantastic final attended by big home
spectators at Cairo Stadium complex hall in Cairo, Egypt on
Tuesday. Ahly raised the number of trophies to 5 championships
after they won it for the last time in 2003.
CAVB President Dr.Amr Elwani gave the trophy to the winners with
the competition Control committee while Pipelines team won the
silver medals. The pervious champions Kenya Commercial Bank won
the Bronze medal following their victory over Al Shames of Egypt
in the third place match.
The matches were attended by many home spectators and CAVB
officials led by CAVB President Dr. Amr Elwani, The Head of
sports department in the Ministry of sports Mr. Ibrahim Ataya,
Control Committee president Mrs. Fofana Aminata, CAVB
representative Mr. Mory Keita, CAVB referee delegate Mr. Mohamed
Saidoune and CAVB Technical Director Mrs. Howyda Mondy and Ahly
Club Board Member Khalid El Darandaly
 It
was really a fantastic classic final between Egypt and Kenya as
usual when Ahly took the revenge from Pipelines after they lost
to that team in the finals of 2004 and 2005 before losing to
another Kenyan team KC Bank in 2006. Ahly won this time 3-1
(25-12, 18-25, 25-22, 25-15) in 91 minutes of exciting
performance.
Ahly started the match aggressively and used their block of
Hagar Badr and Esther Dusu to lead 3-0 and 4-1 before Pipelines
improved their backline defense to come near 5-4 before Ahly
reached to double score 8-4 by the first technical timeout
through the strong spike service of Dusu. Pipelines started to
use the wing spiker Catherine Wanjiru but the solid block of
Ahly through Mona Badawy maintained the situation for their team
16-9. Pipelines head coach made some substitutions to improve
the reception and digging of his team but Ahly increased the
spikes through Sherihan Sameh to end the set 25-12.
The second set showed different picture as the Kenyan team
increased the speed of their attacks through the centre Emily
Yebei to lead 8-3. Ahly coach substituted the setter Yosra Abdel
Karim with the other setter Miral Abdel Karim who led the
combinations and used here skilful setting to narrow the point
deficit to 10-9 before Pipelines regained the rhythm to lead
16-12. The Kenyans used the reception mistakes of Ahly to lead
again 18-13 before Ahly tried to improve their block against the
Kenyan rockets of Esther Jepkosgei but the Kenyans reached to
their peak performance to end the set 25-18.
 At
the beginning of the third set Pipelines used their unstoppable
hits of Catherine and Esther to lead 5-1 before Ahly worked well
again in service through their Nigerian star Esther Dudu to lead
8-6 by the first technical time out. The match became very
exciting especially when Ahly led 18-16 by the strong spikes
from Noran El Maghawry and Dusu. Ahly continued their attacking
rhythm to win the exciting set 25-22.
Ahly continued the same tactics in the fourth set using the
strong spike service of Mona Badawy and Sherihan to lead 8-5.
They also used the block of Mona to lead 12-6. Pipelines tried
to use their big guns Catherine and Esther and their coach
changed the setter Rhoda Lyali and played with Janet Wanja but
the superior Ahly players in all skills succeeded to stop the
attacks and won the set 25-15 and the match 3-1.
Ahly Coach Raouf Abdel Kader was very happy to win the title
after he lost three time in the final and was also satisfied
with the performance his player showed during the final. “We are
happy to win today without our historic star Tahani Tosson after
she retired. Today we did good job in serving which disturbed
Pipelines and prevented them fropm using their strong attackers
by the net.” He said.
Pipelines coach David Lung’aho said that his team was out of
form in the final except Kamende who fought to the end. “I think
Ahly strong service disturbed our reception today and was the
main cause to lose.
 In
the Bronze Medal match the last competition champions KC Bank
stayed in the competition podium but in the third place position
this time after they defeated Al Shams of Egypt in straight sets
25-20, 25-19, 25-19 in 69 minutes. The previous champions ended
their job quickly through their strong spikers Nafula Palanga
and the match scorer with 20 points Docoras Ndasaba, who
surprised their less experienced opponent.
The first set showed dominance for KC Bank team through their
usual strong attackers specially Jemutai Roich and Docoras
Ndasaba so they led all through the set till they won 25- 20. In
the second set Shams started to arrange their block by their
National team star Injy El Shamy and used the strong attacks of
the left attacker Dina Assal to stay near in score till the
result reached to 21-18 when the experienced players of KC Bank
used their strong hits to win the set 25-19.
The third set showed more activity of the left attacker Nafula
Barasa who used her strong attacks from position 2 to lead 8-6.
Shams team struggled to save the match through the combinations
of the setter Fated El Tokhy but KC Bank team was strong enough
to finish the set 25-19 and the match in straight.
 KC
Bank head coach Paul Bitok was not so happy although he got the
bronze because he was playing for the gold. “My team was strong
enough to compete for the gold medal in this competition but I
think the defeat against Ahly at the end of the preliminary
round costs us to lose the semifinal against our arc rivals
Pipelines. I’m a little bit satisfied with the final result
because we still on the final podium. Our big success in this
competition is the high performance of our right attacker
Palanga and the superior performance of our star Docoras
Ndasaba.” Bitok added.
“I think to be between the final four teams in our first ever
international participation is a good result, so I’m satisfied
with this result and my team’s performance during the
competition.” Said El Shams Head Coach, Hamdy El Shamy. “We had
good experience from this competition specially with our young
players because the average age of our team is 20 years and we
have more than three players less than 17. Today we played good
match but the opponent were stronger in attacks and taller than
our players but they fought well till the end.” He added.
Individual Awards:
Most Valuablr player (MVP): Catherine Wnjiru (Pipelines- Kenya)
Best Attacker: Docoras Ndasaba (KC Bank- Kenya)
Best Blocker: Emily Yebei (Pipelines- Kenya)
Best Server: Noran El Maghawry (Ahly- Egypt)
Best Digger: Dina Assal (Shams- Egypt)
Best Setter: Yosra Abdel Karim (Ahly- Egypt)
Best Receiver: Sara Talaat (Ahly- Egypt)
Final Ranking
AHLY EGYPT
KENYA PIPELINE
KENYA COM.BANK
ELSHAMS EGYPT
By Tarek Al-Adwar
CAVB Press Officer
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