By Bismarck Mutahi and Oscar Pilipili

Kenya Prisons women’s team are the new champions of the Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) league title after a hard fought 3-2 (20-25,25-11,22-25,25-20,15-11) win over archrivals Kenya Commercial Bank after the off season playoffs ended at the Kasarani gymnasium.

The National Cereals and Produce Board-sponsored play-offs ended on an anti-climax on Saturday for KCB as they were highly tipped to win the league after Prisons lost the opening match 3-1 to Kenya Pipeline on Thursday.

As if that was not enough KCB could manage only the third position after Pipeline overtook them in the scores ratio to become the runners up but the only consolation is that they will also play in the club championships next year.

It was a long wait at the Kasarani gymnasium after the KCB verses Prisons match as the organisers had to get into their desk to come out with the scores ratio to declare the league champions.

After a tense wait by all the three women teams (Pipeline, Prisons and KCB) that had a chance of winning the KVF league Prisons were crowned champions as they had a superior scores ratio of 1.162 compared to Pipeline (1.129) and KCB (1.039).

By the end of the playoffs on Saturday, all the three teams had lost a match each and it had to take the new rule of scores ratio to determine who wins the league.

Prisons who played without inspirational national team booster Jane Wacu started their campaign on a sour note when they went down to Pipeline on Thursday, while Pipeline also lost to KCB 3-2 on Friday to draw the league race wide open.

Saturday’s tie between KCB and Prisons was billed as the mother of all battles and it did not disappoint as both sets of players gave as much as they received in the five- set thriller that lasted one hour 15 minutes.

KCB were the first to lay the marker in the opening set as they won it 25-20 and it was left to Prisons to win the following set and avoid the pressure of trying to win the third set.

Veteran player Margaret Indakhala was as green as ever for the bankers and she was ably supported by her team captain Jackline Barasa and national team libero Mildred Odwako as they ensured Prisons lost the opening set.

It was, however, not a walk in the park for the bankers as Prisons also looked to the national team cast in their line-up who were led by captain Brackcides Agala.

Prisons coach David Lung’aho, who is also the national team coach made a few changes to the side that lost to Pipeline by breaking in right attacker Esther Mwombe in place of former nation junior team player Everline Makuto.

The changes seemed to work for the jailers as they won the second set before losing the third but recovered to win the fourth and third which secured them the national title.

Debutants Blue Triangle were not so lucky in the play offs as they only managed to go home with experience after they failed to win a single match.