Mwingi, Machakos trainee teachers in a perfect start: Volleyball top dogs champion begin title defence on a high

TEACHERS COLLEGES GAMES Sunrise TTC's Malik Onyango of Athi River and Amos Owoko (left) of ITTC Kitengela during Teachers Training College games at Kitui School. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

 

Kitui comes alive as colleges battle for Nairobi region honours.

Champions Mwingi and Machakos began their men and women volleyball title defence on a high with victories over Narok and Eastern Kenya Integrated College as the Nairobi region teachers training colleges games began yesterday.

Mwingi, who are eyeing their second regional title, were in fine form as they crushed Narok in straight sets of 25-7, 25-7 while Machakos dismissed Eastern Kenya Integrated College 25-15, 25-13 in their men’s Group B and women’s Group A matches respectively.

Narok suffered their second straight defeat after going down 25-10, 25-16 to Integrated Teaching and Training Centre (ITTC), reducing their chances of reaching the semis.

In men’s Group A, Sunrise College beat Thogoto 2-1 to enhance their chances of reaching the last four.

Sunrise won the first set 25-15 , but Thogoto bounced back to take the second set 25-21. However, Sunrise had the final word, winning the third set 25-22.

Machakos Institute of Development Studies (Mids) put up spirited fight to beat Kenya Institute of Special Education (Kise) 2-1 and chalk their first victory of the tournament.

Mids battled to take the first set 25-22 before Kise bounced back to win the second 25-18. The third set was tightly contested as both sides seemed to be at par. However, Mids proved to be the stronger side as they held their nerve to take the third set 25-22.

Unlike the women, Machakos’ men were unlucky as they lost their opening match to their hosts, Kitui Teachers Training College.

Machakos engaged their hosts in a neck-and-neck chase for the first set but succumbed to pressure to lose 24-26. Kitui cruised to victory in the second set to win 25-15.

Narok women posted mixed results, winning 2-1 against Mids and losing 2-0 to ITTC in other Group A matches. They beat Mids 25-20, 22-25, 25-14 but fizzled out in their clash with ITTC to go down 25-16, 25-15.

Men’s football champions Machakos launched their defence on the wrong footing, going down 2-0 to Narok.

Nonetheless, they recovered from their disappointing start to clobber EKIC 5-1 and book their place in today’s semi-finals.

Sam Odongo bagged a brace while Captain Stephen Wekesa, Daniel Muzei, and Fredrickson Muga scored one goal each for their side.

Despite the shaky start, Wekesa insisted they aimed to defend their title.

“We didn’t have a chance to warm up for our opening match because there was poor communication in regard to where we were to play. We got to the right pitch late and we had to play without warming up and it affected our performance. Even so, our main objective is to defend our title,” Wekesa said.