Kenya Prisons demolish Ethiopia’s Water Sports in the second match

By Oscar Pilipli    

Kenya Prisons continued with their fairy tale run in CAVB African Club Championship after they achieved their second successive victory in the tournament.

The four-time winners used fantastic setting skills of experienced Jane Wacu to hammer Water Sports of Ethiopia in straight sets of 25-19, 25-16, 25-20 in Pool ‘B’ in Antananarivo, Madagascar yesterday.

The results improved Prisons’ win-loss ratio in the tournament to 2-0 and this means the Kenyans have already confirmed their quarter-finals slot.

Prisons now need to overcome an unpredictable GSP side from Algeria today to finish the preliminary round as pool winners.

GSP has also won all their opening two matches defeating Kutlwano 3-0 (25-08, 25-14, 25-10) yesterday morning. They also beat Water Sports 3-0 on Thursday.

Pipeline team was scheduled to play their second match of the tournament and Uganda’s Ndejje last night.

Pipeline defeated Manga Sports from Gabon 3-0 in their opening match on Thursday.

Pipeline final pool match is against Les As of Rwanda today.

The winner of Pool ‘B’ will play the runners up of Pool ‘C’ that also has Kenya Pipeline.

Prisons and Pipeline must top respective pools to avoid a possible quarter-final clash.

In other matches played, APR of Rwanda clinched a tough victory over organisers Stef Auto from Madagascar 3-2 (25-18, 21-25, 25-21, 27-29, 17-15) in a thrilling Pool ‘A’ encounter lasting more than two hours.

The Rwandan team led in the first set with their better reception, but quickly Stef Auto came to the match to win the second set due to the powerful attacks from position four.

Again the Rwandan team looked more disciplined to win the third set before Madagascar team drew 2-2 to extend the match to tiebreaker.

Both teams went point by point in the tiebreaker till APR used the errors done by the host to win narrowly 17-15. 

In Pool ‘B’ opening matches, GS Petroliers (Algeria) used the experience of their setter Fatma Okazi to beat Water Sport (Ethiopia) 3-0 (25-18, 25-10, 25-15) in 60 minutes of dominance for the Algerian team.

Petroliers showed that they are coming to compete for the cup through their disciplined performance using opposite spiker Amel Khamtache and the outside hitter Zohra Ben Salem.

Defending champions Prisons (KEN) hammered Kutlwano (BOT) 3-0 (25-11, 25-16, 25-14) in 58 minutes showing full control for the Kenyans. Coming to defend their title for the fourth consecutive time, Prisons played with the full line up as the coach David Lungaho made a lot of substitutions to give the chance to all the team stars. As usual the team captain and setter Wacu played a great role in the victory together with the efficient spiker Everlyne Makutu.

In Pool ‘C’, Ndejje University of Uganda beat Les As (Burundi) 3-0 (25-15, 25-21, 25-10) in a match showing dominance for the Ugandan team due to their better arrangement of the attacks beside the good reception. 

In Pool ‘D’,  Ahly (Egypt) surprised FAP (Cameroon) with the tight blocks and quick attacks from position three to win their match 3-0 (25-18, 25-11, 25-19) in 74 minutes.

AS Tanda (Cote d’ Voire) fought for two hours to set a remarkable victory over VB Diamand Club in a fantastic five-set 3-2 (25-20, 22-25, 20-25, 25-23, 15-13).