KCB hope to make impact in CAVB Clubs Championships

By Oscar Pilipili
Youthful Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) hope to overcome the misfortunes of the previous tournament and finish inside the medal brackets in CAVB African Women’s Clubs Championships.

The Championships will be played at Moi International Sports Centre and African Nazarene University on May 10-19.
The 2006 winners (KCB) finished 12th out of 16 teams and assistant coach Moses Kimani attributed the poor show to several reasons among them departure of experienced players and head of technical team who left the team one month to the Championships.

“It was unfortunate that coach Japheth Munala left the team to join Kenya Pipeline when the event was about to start,” he said.
“We also missed the services of experienced libero Mildren Odwako (now at Pipeline), setter Farida Efumbi and attackers Jackie Baraza and Edna Rotich for various reasons,” he said.
“The combination of all these reasons left the KCB team in disarray leading to the poor show,” he said.
Kimani said that the team has recovered over the last one year and was ready to reclaim its position as a top volleyball side in Africa.

School leavers
“KCB team is made up of young players who are mostly school leavers and college students. I want to believe that the experience they gained from the previous competition will help them finish within medal brackets if not winning the Championships on this occasion,” he said.

Kimani indicated that Helen Chemutai has shown tremendous improvement in fitting into the shoes of Odwako.Efumbi, who is one of the most experienced setters in the country, is expected to do duty for the team that was once the core of Kenyan volleyball.

The team revolves around experienced captain Eunice Maiyo who is the oldest member of the team.
Maiyo echoed the thoughts of her manager as she said: “Our young team hope to improve on last year’s result and finish among the top three at the end of the competition.”