Kenyan ladies clash with the South Americans today in opening match.
Kenya Under 23 Women’s Volleyball coach Catherine Mabwi is confident her team can handle champions Brazil.
The two sides clash in today’s (4pm) opening Pool B match of the FIVB Women’s U23 World Championship, in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Mabwi is not worried by the fact that her side is in the ‘group of death’ in the third edition of the tournament that will be played under the new scoring system which was recently introdcuded by the International Volleyball Federation.
Matches in the new system will be played to best-of-seven sets with each set to end with 15 points (with at least a two-point difference needed).
Three ranking points will be awarded to teams winning 4-0, 4-1 or 4-2, while two points will go to the winner of a 4-3 match with one point for the loser.
After the South Americans’ test, the junior Malkia Strikers will take on their hotel-mates Bulgaria tomorrow before facing 2015 runners up Turkey the following day.
They will then clash with Cuba on September 14, a day before wrapping up their group matches against Japan.
Kenya finished last at the 2013 tournament in Mexico after crashing out at the group stage following defeats to eventual winners China, Brazil, Germany and USA.
“Of course we are in a tough Group, but the good thing is that we had anticipated it. However, in sports any team is beatable, so let nobody underrate us.
“This is a totally different team from the one that was in Mexico,” Mabwi told The Standard Sports.
“I am pretty sure we will pull off some surprises here.”
Having practiced the new scoring system which is expected to reduce overall duration of matches with no technical time-outs, the former Kenyan international expects the national team to perfect it.
“We have been working on our tactics, accuracy of skill execution and ensuring the players understand the new rules.
“We are aware of the guidelines and even tried it out during our three friendly matches against Prisons, Nairobi Water and KCB,” added Mabwi.
If successful, the new scoring system which was tried out at the respective men’s competition in Cairo last month, could mark a historical turning point for volleyball — much as the introduction of the Rally Scoring System did in the late 1990s.
