2008 Women’s African Clubs Champions Championship- Cairo, Egypt

Day 2 Prisons of Kenya sets the first Victory, Mouloudia of Algeria leads Pool B Cairo, Egypt, April 28, 2008- Prisons of Kenya were the stars of the second day of the 2008 Women’s African Clubs Champions Championship as they defeated Bafia Evolution of Cameroon appearing with the best performance between all the competition teams till now, while Mouloudia of Algeria becomes the first team to achieve two victories beating VC Canon of RD Congo here at Abdalla Al Faysal Hall in Ahly club Cairo, Egypt on Monday. Al Shams of Egypt rebounded after they lost the first match and achieved a difficult victory over Mafolofolo of Botswana. The matches were attended by CAVB President Dr. Amr Elwani, Local Organizing Committee Mr. Mohamed Abdelwahab, the control committee president Mr. Baba Sy, CC member Amada Sidiyane and referee delegate Salamba and CAVB technical director Howyda Mondy and Ahly Sports Manager Samir Abdrabou. The competition will feature four matches on Tuesday as Poisons of Kenya plays Nkumba University of Uganda and Al Ahly of Egypt meets Bafia Evolution of Cameroon in Pool A, KC Bank of Kenya plays Mafolofolo of Botswana and VC Canon of RD Congo meets Al Shams of Egypt in Pool B. Prisons vs. Bafia Prisons of Kenya played the best performance in the competition till now and succeeded to bring a straight sets victory over Bafia Evolution of Cameroon 25-22, 25-14, 25-19 in 68 minutes. Prisons’ superstars Diana Khisa and Agala Khadambi did well with the match scorer with 15 points Lydia Maiyo and succeeded to bring the victory that put them as big favorites for the title. Prisons record becomes 1-0 in their first match in the competition, while Bafia becomes 0-1. Prisons head coach David Lungaho referred the first victory to the high performance of Diana Khisa and Maiyo who were the stars of the match. “I’m happy that my team appeared in that performance but we have more to do in the coming matches,” Said Lungaho. “We are fit because we played more than 12 friendly matches in Kenya before coming here although we played only one match in the Kenyan league that just started early this month.” He added. The first set was the most exciting in the match as Bafia deployed their block against prisons attacks through Nana Tchoudjang and Nikeuheu Djantolu and thus they stayed near all through till Maiyo led her team to win narrowly 25-22. The second and third sets showed complete dominance for the Kenyan team through their efficient spikes of Maiyo and the block of Khadambi to win easier 25-14 and 25-19. VC Canon vs. Mouloudia Mouloudia of Algeria achieved their second victory in a raw over VC Canon of RD Congo 3-0 (27-25, 25-21, 25-14) in 67 minutes. Mouloudia improved their record to 2-0 at the top of Pool B, while VC Canon dropped to 0-2. Mouloudia performance showed big fluctuation through the match depending on the reception state. The head coach of the team Ahmed Boukacem was not happy with the performance although this victory. “Our performance was affected by the standard of the reception and I think this was due to the lack of experience of most of the players who are between 18 and 19 years. I think we can perform better in the coming matches.” He said. Canon coach Mukui di Etab said that they played only 4 matches before this competition which is not enough for such big competitions. “We need to arrange our reception because it is the weakest point in our team.” He added. The first set was the most exciting in the competition till now as it went point by point with thriller rallies from both teams. The Algerian setter Fatima Oukazi led her team with her well known combinations and the middle blockers Dalel Draa and Saliha Benhamouda played well against the spikes of Canon team to win the set narrowly 27-25. In the second set Canon started the match using their potent service that disturbed the Algerian defense for a while and thus they led 8-2 at the FTT. Mouloudia improved their reception and digging to decrease the point deficit gradually till they drew for the first time 15-15. The reception of Canon team was disturbed to allow Mouloudia to win the set 25-21. Mouloudia players became more motivated in the third set and that allowed the head coach Ahmed Boukacem to make some substitutions to give the chance to some bench players. The Algerian team used the fast attacks to widen the score to 16-9 at the STT. Canon team tried to save the match through improving the block of Salima Osako and Ekofo Moyiwza, but the Algerian team was good enough to end their job successfully and won the set 25-14 and the match in straight sets. Mafolofolo vs. Al Shams Al Shams of Egypt recovered after losing the first set to pill of a 3-1 victory (22-25, 25-18, 25-16, 25-21) in 80 minutes. Al Shams improved their record in Pool B to 1-1, while Mafolofolo dropped to 0-1. Mafolofolo deployed their block in the first set and succeeded to win using the disturbed backline defense of Shams players who improved a lot thereafter to win three successive sets and achieve the competition first victory. Mafolofolo team started the match using the strong spikes from position 4 through Gaoleseletse and Tshepo Serwe to lead 8-5. They used Shams players’ weak backline defense to continue leading 16-12. Shams coach replaced the setter Faten El Tokhi by Doaa Adel but still the block was better in Mafolofolo side to win the set 25-22. In the second set Shams improved their defense and this allowed them to build up the attacks through the left attacker Dina Assal and the youngster Nermin Salah. After Mafolofolo led at the start many time Shams team organized the defense and succeeded to win the set 25-18. Mafolofolo retained their good block at the beginning of the third set and the setter Kelebogile led the fast combinations by the net to lead 8-4 at the FTT. Shams team started to use the spike service of Dina and Nermin to decrease the point deficit gradually till they led 16-24 before winning the set 25-16. Shams team overwhelmed the situation in the fourth set with their high spirit to win and used again the effiecent spikes of Ingy El Shami and Dina Assal to lead 8-5. Shams coach used the promising Ola Shawky as center and she did well against Mafolofolo attacks to continue leading 16-12. Mafolofolo improved the defense to come near 22-20 before Shams ended the set 25-21 after successful spikes from Ingy.