Serbia hand Kenya’s Malkia Strikers third W. Cup loss

Kenya’s Malkia Strikers lost their third consecutive match in straight sets against Serbia at the World Cup Volleyball Championships in Hamamatsu and Yokohama in Japan yesterday. The Serbians easily won the first two sets in 25-13 and 25-11 before sealing it with a 25-17 victory in the final set to confine the Kenyan to their third consecutive defeat.

In all the three matches so far they have played, Malkia Strikers have not won a set, but their losing margins proves their fighting spirit.

The third loss was a set back to the Kenyan ladies, who are using the global championships to prepare for next year’s Tokyo Olympics, which will be also be hosted in Japan.

In her first match, Kenya was beaten by United States of America in straight sets of 25-14, 25-20 and 25-14 and fell to a similar set loss of 25-12, 25-19 and 25-17 against Netherlands.

Head Coach Paul Bitok said the matches have exposed his players in their different capacities to world giants. Bitok said he hoped mistakes they have already committed in the first matches will not be repeated.

“We have been beaten by the three teams and we have equally learnt our mistakes. The beauty is not to repeat the same mistakes in our next matches,” he told Standard Sports.

Kenya face former world champions Brazil tomorrow in their fourth match.

African champions Cameroon also lost their third consecutive match, going down to Dominican Republic, who defeated them 3-2 (25-17, 25-15, 23-25, 28-30, 15-10).

Cameroon’s set-margin-loses are better compared to Malkia Strikers’ who are yet to win a single set as opposed to the West Africans who won two of the five sets against Dominican Republic in yesterday’s match.

The West Africans lost their first match on straight sets against Russia in 25-14, 25-15 and 25-10 and thereafter lost by the same margin to world champions China in 25-18, 25-14 and 25-19.

Cameroon takes on Japan tomorrow at 19.20 hours, almost one and half hours after Kenya’s match against Brazil.