Pipeline and Prisons teams start tourney on positive note

By Oscar Pilipili

Kenya Pipeline and Prisons opened their campaign to return to the top of continental volleyball on positive note.

Kenya Pipeline won against Manga Sports of Gabon in CAVB African Club Championships whereas defending champions Kenya Prisons beat Kutlwano from Botswana 3-0 (25-11, 25-16, 25-14) in a Pool ‘B’ tie to set up a good tempo on the first day of the tournament.

Bracksides Agala was the best scorer of the day pulling some fantastic strikes.

Coach David Lung’aho praised the performance of the team as he said: “It is a good start and we thank God for the win. It is very hard to start positively in a top level competition like this one but I am encouraged by the performance.”

The six-time winners, Kenya Pipeline  needed just 47 minutes to see off Manga in straight sets of 25-17, 25-11, 25-9 on opening day of the competition in Antananarivo, Madagascar yesterday.

Monicah Biama stood out in the second set scoring nine points in Pipeline’s annihilation of Manga.

Meanwhile, defending champions Kenya Prisons play preliminary matches in Pool ‘B’ as per draws conducted Wednesday.

The drawing of lots took divided 15 participating teams into four pools in preliminary round.

Stef Auto of Madagascar is drawn in Pool ‘A’ along with APR (Rwanda) and Bejaia (Algeria). 

Kenya Pipeline face Les AS (Burundi) and Ndejje University (Uganda) in Pool C. Five-time champions Al Ahly (Egypt) take on AS Tanda (Cote d’Ivoire),  FAP (Cameroon) and VB Diamand (Madagascar) in Pool ‘D’.

Organisers said that each pool will play a round robin format where the top two teams qualify automatically to the  uarter-finals of one to eight places.

Teams placed third and fourth will compete for nine to 16 positions.

Meanwhile, Prisons top setter Jane Wacu has urged her team mates to keep working hard and maintain focus as that is the only way the team will post better results this season.

Wacu who stands at 174cm in height and weighs 58kgs said: “No pain no gain is the only way forward in sports and we will fight through. I urge my team mates to keep working harder and continue with the hard training for it will bear fruits in the end.”

Wacu was quoted by Kenya Prisons Sports website saying top continental titles including retaining the African pride and domestic trophy remain top on the club’s agenda.

“Posting better results at the FIVB World Club Championship is also on our agenda,” she said.

The four-time African champions- Prisons- are seeking their fifth crown and another journey to the FIVB Club World Championship this year.

“I know it will be a great challenge for us to win this competition as we have here the most prominent teams in the continent,” Lungaho told Confederation of African Volleyball ahead of the competition technical meeting in Madagascar last Wednesday.

Prisons overwhelmed the African volleyball since its appearance for the first time in 2008 when they won their first ever cup and then they clinched the title three successive years thereafter.