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Semifinal
Tunisia and Egypt to final spot after 2 tie breaks
 Tunis,
Tunisia, August 28, 2008- The organizers Tunisia and the
defending champions Egypt secured their tickets to the
final spot of the 2008 Men’s Junior African Nations
Championship following their thriller victories both
through five- set matches over Morocco and Algeria here
at Sidi Bousaid Hall in Tunis, Tunisia on Thursday.
Tunisia meets Egypt in a classic African final on
Saturday while Morocco meets their neighbors for the
bronze medal
In the ranking matches South Africa and Cameroon beat
Botswana and Benin during the semifinal of 5- 8
positions. The winners South Africa plays Cameroon for
the 5th and 6th position, while the other encounter
between Benin and Botswana will determine the 7th and
8th positions, both matches will be held on Friday.
Tunisia vs. Morocco
 Tunisia
fought for 104 minutes to Cruise past the solid opponent
Morocco after the competition first 5 set match 3-2
(20-25, 25-21, 21-25, 25-17, 15-7) after a thriller
performance from both team. Morocco led twice 1-0 and
2-1 in sets before Tunisia rebounded back to win the
fourth set and the tiebreak when their motivations
reached to the utmost. Karamosy from Tunisia and Allaoui
from Morocco were the stars of the match and the
cornerstone in the final result.
Tunisia qualified to the final match to meet Egypt while
Morocco plays Algeria for the bronze medal.
Tunisia head Hedi Karray was happy to win after the long
Marathon specially he expected that the match to proceed
to tiebreak. “I told my players to remain concentrated
for a long time because I expected a big fight from
Morocco team. Our reception was bad at the start of the
match and this prevented us from applying our strategy
to use our dominance through the middle blockers. By the
time our reception improved and we succeeded to win
through the centers and my star today Elyes Karamosly.”
He said.
Morocco head coach Mohamed Abdallaoui was satisfied with
the performance of his players al though he lost the
match. He referred the defeat to the setter who couldn’t
apply our combinations.” He said.
It was really an exciting start from the Tunisian side
when they penetrated the Moroccan block through Elyes
Karamosly and Chokri Jouini to lead 6-3. Morocco team
suddenly emerged with the spike service of Moustafa
Taoufik and the unstoppable hits of Mohamed Alaoui to
draw 7-7 before Tunisia rushed to the first technical
timeout (FTT) by a narrow score 8-7. Morocco came with a
big motivation to lead 11-8 scoring 4 successive points
through one server and forcing the Tunisian coach to
call timeout. Allaoui and Youssef Oughlaf maintained the
pressure over the Tunisian block and defense improving
the result to 20-17 before ending the set 25-20 after a
spike from Oughlaf.
The Tunisian coach made some substitutions shifting the
opposite Karamosly to the left attack and put Hamza Naga
as opposite. Tunisia had the lead 8-5 at the FTT due to
their concentration in digging and reception and thus
the setter Ben Manssour led the attacks to the wing
spikers. Morocco came up of some fast attacks through
the center Jalal El Bezzari but Tunisia were more active
to reach to 16-14 at the STT. Morocco improved their
block to regain the lead 18-17 before Tunisia
performance raised to the top and finished the set 25-21
to draw 1-1 in sets.
The third set showed more disciplined block from the
Moroccan team which succeeded to stop the Tunisian
attacks as Allaoui and Oughlaf spiked well and reached
to 8-6 for their team at the FTT. Morocco’s big gun
Allaoui led his team consistently to penetrate the
Tunisian block until they led 16-11 at the STT and then
his colleague Mohamed Al Hachdadi continued the work to
give his team a lead until they won the thriller set
25-21 and 2-1 in sets.
The fourth set showed much controversial score as
Morocco started with the push of winning the second set
and led 3-1 after s group successful blocks from the
team but suddenly Tunisia emerged with the service and
the block of Ahmed Khadhi and scored 6 successive points
making the score 7-3 b3fore reaching to 8-5 at the FTT.
Morocco returned back and draw 12-12 with the activity
of their wing spikers and the solid block. Again Tunisia
used the strong weapon of the spike services from Jouini
and Nagga to lead 16-12 at the STT. Again Morocco
players lost their concentration in reception and
Tunisia went forwards to win the set widely 25-17 to
draw 2-2 in sets and extend the match to tiebreak.
In the tiebreak Tunisia put the pressure through their
service and this made Morocco players committing many
mistake and when Tunisia was 4-1 ahead Morocco coach
called time out to regain the confidence, but the
Tunisian players became more motivated and led 8-4 at
the court turn. Morocco insisted to come back through
the spikes of Allaoui but he was marked enough by the
Tunisia block as Tunisia went easily to win the tiebreak
15-7.
Egypt vs. Algeria
 Egypt
Breezed past Algeria in a fantastic five- set match
lasting more than 2 hours of thriller action 25-19,
25-27, 22-25, 25-16, 15-13. After Egypt won the first
set the players became disturbed and lost two sets till
they regained their confidence at the fourth set to draw
and to save the tiebreak after they were two points
behind 11-13 to score four critical points that brought
the victory.
Egypt head coach Emad Nawar was very irritable even
after the victory because he saw his players very
tensioned all through the match. ”I told my players to
keep concentrating without stress and they were
aggressive to lose many critical points that extended
the match more than expected. I’m happy today with the
performance of Reda Heikal who played as a standing for
the first time and was very convenient.”
On the other Algeria head coach Hadj Belgacem was proud
of is team and satisfied with what they did. “We had a
bad luck in many critical points specially the service
that touched the net and dropped in our court. But any
how I’m apply with my players specially Billal Souilam.”
The match was very tight at the start due to the good
defense and block from both sides so the result went
point by point till 5-5 when the Egyptian left attacker
Ahmed Abdel Aal led his team to the first jump 8-6 at
the FTT. Egypt setter Mohamed Badr led his team with the
successful combinations as Egypt stayed ahead with some
activity from Algeria through the left attacker Djihad
Nourani till Egypt led 16-13 at the STT. The Egyptian
center Mamdouh Abdel Moneim did well in blocking
allowing Egypt to widely 20-14 before Algeria came back
through the hits of Billal Soualem and Abdellah Kazouai
but the better Egyptian side finished the situation
25-19.
In the second set Algeria improved their reception and
succeeded to maintain the draw till 7-7 when Egypt came
ahead 8-7 at the FTT through a hit from Abdel Aal.
Algeria improve their defense as Soualem did a good job
in spiking from all net positions, but quickly Egypt
came back through the spikes of Abdel Aal and Reda
Heikal to lead 16-15 at the STT. Egypt players commit
frequent reception and digging mistake allowing Algeria
to emerge and continue till they saved 2 set points from
the Egyptian team and won the set 27-25.
The third set showed more motivation from the Algerian
side and their setter Messaoud Debbih led the
combinations that was used well the Soualem and Kazouai.
Algeria succeeded to use the disturbed Egyptian defense
through sending their razor sharp services that put
Algeria ahead 10-6. The Egyptian coach made some
substitutions to rearrange the system of play but
Algeria stayed ahead till 15-13 when Egypt had three
successive blocks to lead 16-15 at the STT. The thrills
reached utmost when the draw repeated till 21-21 when
Algeria scored three successive points to lead 24-21 and
win the set 25-22 and advance 2-1 in sets.
Egypt played very aggressive at the start of the fourth
set using the spike service of Mohamed Khattab and the
fast spikes through Mohamed Anis and succeeded lead 8-4
at the FTT. Egypt kept their rhythm and used the spike
service of Khattab and the spikes of abdel Aal to
increase the point deficit 16-11 at the STT. The set
became one side due to the disturbance of Algerian
players and Egypt won the set widely 25-16 and extended
the match to tiebreak
Benin vs. Cameroon
 Cameroon
overwhelmed Benin 3-0 (25-9, 25-23, 25-16) in 59 minutes
after a match dominated by the winners through their
strong spikers and consistent play. Cameroon qualified
to play for the 5th and 6th positions against South
Africa, while Benin plays for the 7th and 8th positions
against Botswana.
Cameroon Head coach Peter Nonnenbroich was happy to
achieve his first competition victory to play for the
fifth position which in his opinion the best to be
achieved in the present circumstances. “If my team is
complete with all the available line up I should think
to compete for a semifinal spot but as we have a great
shortage the fifth position now is our goal,” He said
strictly. “We played today as a collective team so I
can’t manage to choose one star.” He added.
Benin coach Antonnnin Guedegbe was angry to see his team
in the worst performance during the competition. “We
were improving from match to another in the first round
but today we played out worst match. The players were
not concentrating in reception and we even we didn’t
block all through the match.”
Cameroon made it a one side start when they led 6-0 due
to the regular hits of Jean Ntabeye forcing Benin head
coach to call timeout which kept the situation 8-2 at
the FTT. Cameroon maintained the pressure on Benin team
through the impermeable block Karl Tchokouani and
succeeded to widely lead until they won the set 25-9.
The second set showed a little improvement in Benin
reception and backline defense so they went ahead 3-1
before Cameroon quickly returned back and led 12-5.
Benin fought their best and decreased the point deficit
gradually until they got the lead 16-14 at the STT due
to the efficient setting by their setter Aly Salim.
Benin block stopped many spikes from Cameroon team the
center Raimou Moukaila and kept their lead 20-17.
Cameroon wing spiker Robert Ngaka improved his hits from
position 4 and scored frequently till he had the set
point and led his team to win the set 25-23.
The third set went point till the draw 4-4 when Cameroon
practiced the attacking combination using the
unstoppable hits of the wing spikers to widen the point
dicit gradually till they won the set 25-16 and the
match in straight sets.
South Africa vs. Botswana
 South
Africa used their dominance at the middle of the net to
edge Botswana in straight sets 25-15, 25-16, 25- 19 in
73 Minutes in the semifinal of 5-8 positions. South
Africa qualified to play for 5 and 6 positions against,
while Botswana plays for the 7 and 8 positions against.
South Africa head coach Bedi Mabeka was not convinced
with his team’s performance in spite of the victory and
mentioned that he asked his team to take care of the
basics like the service and the reception. “I asked my
players to care about the service and to play floating
service instead of the spike and to use the middle
blocker to stop Botswana attacks, but I’m not completely
satisfied with the performance because they didn’t
follow all the instructions.” Said Mabeka. “As a whole
I’m happy to win 3-0 and now we are looking forwards to
win the fifth position.” He added.
Botswana head coach Carlos Fellove referred the defeat
to the lack of motivation of the players and the low
performance of the team star Kabo Moetoe. “My objectives
were to win this match and play for the fifth position
but the player play today without moral and thus they
lost easily. If we played like we did against Morocco we
may have better result.”
South Africa used the disturbed Botswana reception to
build up the attacks regularly through the middle of the
net through the centers Naidoo Quwin and Ellerberk who
led completely the net action to reach 8-2 at the FTT.
South Africa continued the same dominance and led 16-4
at the STT using the frequent errors of Botswana players
and the strong hits of Julies Zenomen and then succeeded
to finish the set 25-15.
In the second set Botswana tried to arrange their
defense relatively, but kept their upper hand by the net
and reached to 10-4 due the persistent solid block and
strong spikers specialy when the coach fielded the right
attacker May Ethen in position 2. Botswana improved
their attacking power through Kabo Moetse and Shathigo
Fulele to decrease the point deficit to 18-13. Again the
South African Middle blocker concentrate to stop
Botswana attacks and it was easy for them to proceed to
win the set 25-16.
Botswana played their best at the beginning of the third
set and led for the first time at a technical timeout
8-6 due to the combinations led by the setter Lechedzani
Ncana. Botswana extended their lead to 11-6 before the
South African coach called a timeout to rearrange his
team and it happened that his team emerged again and
played a collective team work to win the set 25-19.
The tie break started very exciting and went point by
point till 5-5 through the strong spikes from both sides
that was not tolerated by the defense. Algeria had the
first jump 7-5 before Egypt went to the draw 7-7 and
Algeria went ahead 8-7 at the court turn. Egypt led
again 9-8 and Algeria used the service of Dibbih to lead
12-10. Algeria maintained the lead to 13-11 when Egypt
scored 4 successive points to win 15-13 and the exciting
match 3-2.
Ranking matches Program
Friday 29 August 28, 2008
18:00 7th and 8th positions Botswana vs. Benin
20:00 5th and 6th positions South Africa vs. Cameroon
Saturday 30 August 28, 2008
15:00 3rd and 4th positions Morocco vs. Algeria
18:00 final Tunisia vs. Egypt
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