KPA pray for maiden National League title

After years of coming so close but falling short, Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) are keen to win this season's Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) men's national league title.

They are determined to finally get it right when they take on former champions General Service Unit (GSU) in the best-of-three final that begins tomorrow at Kasarani Indoor Arena.

The dockers have always played second fiddle to the paramilitary side as well as Kenya Prisons who they eliminated in the semi-finals.

With their best performance over the years being second and third-place finishes, KPA coach James Ontere believes that time is ripe for his charges to win their first title.

"The boys are in high spirits because they believe that this is their year. They have been working very hard because they want to write their own history. They don't just want to be players who played in the league but won nothing," Ontere said.

KPA have had a good season winning 12 out of their 14 regular season matches to finish third on the standings with 34 points.

They lost to Kenya Prisons 3-1 and Kenya Airport Police Unit (KAPU) 3-2. Ontere said that while they registered very good wins, it was the loss to KAPU that made them learn invaluable lessons.

"We had a good season, won most of our games and even lost to the then defending champions (Kenya Prisons) but it was our defeat to KAPU that helped us to rethink our strategy and not write off any opponent," Ontere said.

He added that the loss and what they witnessed during the Men's African Club Championship in Misurata, Libya has been key in their campaign.

"In many years of playing and coaching, I learned from these two experiences to approach every game with caution because my boys were complacent against KAPU who capitalised on that to come from two sets down and beat us."

"In Libya, big clubs that were expected to win easily were beaten by the so-called small clubs and so we have had to just focus on the opponent and game at hand."

Ontere revealed that he also made recruitment at the beginning of the season that have been key in their impressive run.

"We lost some of our experienced players to other clubs and so we recruited several players from school teams."