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Day 3
Egypt and Tunisia
continued clean sheet
 Nairobi,
Kenya, September 11, 2008- It was cold outside the Moi
International Sports Centre, Kasarani in Nairobi, Kenya
on Wednesday, but Tunisia were red hot in their 3-1
victory over Seychelles in the third day of African
Junior Women Volleyball Championship. Egypt continued
their winning rhythm and achieved their second victory
over Senegal to stay in a good position to defend the
title they achieved 2 years ago.
Tunisia vs. Seychelles 3-1
According to form, Tunisia should have been on top from
the off, but in the opening exchanges; they failed to
dominate the opposition and allowed Seychelles to stay
with them at the first technical timeout, 8-7. But it
didn’t stay that way for long. Blocks by Agrebi Rahma
and Sassi Nadia Paula put Tunisia ahead by two and a big
spike by Rahma extended it to three points. Fatma and
Habachi Faten also showed their strength and Nadia added
two spikes to help the Tunisians to a 16-7 lead at the
second technical timeout. The Seychelles also made
errors. Cedras Samura was unable to handle a serve by
Ben Youssef Sonia at 23-12 and a long serve by Fatma
handed Tunisia the first set. In the second set,
Seychelles tried to stay with the pace. The blocking
improved considerably, but even when one attack was
repelled another Tunisian white wave followed. The
elusive Fatma and the fiery Sonia cranked out the
points, 8-7 Tunisia at the first technical time out.
When the Seychelles’ bench saw things turn awry, head
coach JM Roche called his first time out of the second
set to try and instill some self-belief into his team,
as Tunisia looked ready to run away with it. A brilliant
dig by Samura could not prevent Fatma from gobbling up
the rebound and firing Tunisia into the second technical
time out with a five-point lead, 16-11. On the restart,
Bonne Marielle hammered an awesome winner on the left,
and her bullet jump serves unsettled the Tunisian
defence. The Seychelles’ Polish libero Samura was
hurling herself into the mouth of the cannon to thwart
Tunisia’s firepower, but the Northern Africans were in
control at 18-13, forcing Roche to call for a time out.
Rahma spiked and then pulled off a point-saving dig from
Marielle’s smooth back court attack, and Cherif Nouha
added a wristy drive down the left side for 22-13,
immediately followed by exactly the same move. Jouini
Khaoula then pushed one into space for set point at
24-14, and Fatma’s attack had too much power for the
Seychelles’ defense, 25-14, 2-0. Seychelles must have
learnt their mistake in the third set, judging from
their composed play. Coming from 3-4 down, they managed
to contain the Tunisian fury, 8-7 at the first technical
time out. Marielle was outstanding as she delivered
unanswered spikes to the Tunisian side. After both teams
tied at 19-19, it was Seychelles who would break off for
a deserving 25-23 win. Fatma’s power serves, including
two aces, helped Tunisia to a 4-1 lead in the fourth
set. Fatma then showed what she can do- with a huge
spike and a great block on Marielle as Tunisia took a
ten-point lead at 16-6. Lesperance Flora of Seychelles
responded with two decent spikes and if the fans thought
there was a sense of inevitability about the match, they
insisted on going down fighting. Time and again they
came up with big defensive plays, but the force that was
Tunisia still proved overwhelming. As the match drew to
a close, Tunisia, massively, won 25-9.
Egypt vs. Senegal 3-0
The defending champions, Egypt extended their win-loss
record to 2-0 with another polished performance,
brushing aside Senegal 25-20, 25-11, 25-14 to drop them
to 0-2. “Our game plan worked. We knew how the
Senegalese play and contained them. They are quite tall
girls and we had to improve our blocking department.
This helped us win. We are now focusing on our next
match against Tunisia tomorrow (today),” said Egyptian
coach, Hesham Badrawy. The Egyptian’s spiking, notably
from Abouel Nermin and Hussein Yasmin out wide, was more
accurate and venomous, taking them to a one point lead,
8-7, at the first technical time-out. When the
Senegalese attack ran up against strong Egyptian
blocking and fell behind 10-8, coach, Amadou Sene called
for a time out.Amina Diop, feeding off a short set from
Adama Adama, brought Senegal back into it. Egyptian,
Elbitar Dina was proving too hot to handle for blockers,
Amina and Fatou Mamy and an excellent back court dig
from Esraa Ahmed enabled Abd El Fattah Nahla to stroke
another beautiful winner up the right. Yasmin gave Tall
Awa Awa a taste of her own medicine with some
razor-sharp blows down the middle, and coach, Amadou
Sene had to call for a time out. But there was nothing
Senegal could do to stop Dina pouncing like a panther
for 19-18 lead. The Senegalese attack completely broke
down, prompting a timeout at 22-18, and Nassef Nada
thrashed one past libero Awa Awa on the resumption for
23-18. Yasmin carved through the Senegalese defense for
set point at 24-19, and the same player popped up on the
opposite flank to close it 25-20.In the second set,
Egypt were again on the driving seat with Nada, Emam
Menatalla doing the damage. A brilliant Amina spike
could not prevent Nosseir Lamis from gobbling up the
rebound and firing Egypt into the first technical time
out with a five-point lead, 8-3.And that was the same
song by the second technical time out, 16-4, for Egypt.
A couple of successive errors by the Egyptians couldn’t
help their opponents, who were left ton wonder what had
hit them after going down 25-11 for the second. In the
third, the persistent Diop Amina tried to spark Senegal
back to life with a sizzling spike on the right, but an
astonishing dipping attack from Nahla sent the
Senegalese into a time out trailing 5-8.A Senegalese
comeback looked unlikely with Egypt capable of shifting
up a gear when necessary. Nahla did just that, 16-9 at
the second technical time out.Fatma and Yasmin scored
impressively to send Egypt into a time out with their
lead at 21-9, before Dina ended it 25-14.
Tunisia will now meet Egypt on Thursday, in a match that
will be of untold importance to the Kenyans. Kenya, who
lost 3-1 to Egypt on Tuesday, will be praying hard for
the Pharaohs to lose the tie in this round-robin
championship. Kenya meets Senegal in one way match for
the host country who wants to win to stay in
competition.
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