Volleyball:Brazil thump Kenya in Under-23 match

By Oscar Pilipili and FIVB

Joy Lusenaka receives the ball against Brazil.

Kenya remained winless after going down in straught sets 3-0 (8-25, 7-25, 10-25) against Brazil in their third match at the FIVB Women’s Under-23 World Championships in Tijuana, Mexico.

Kenyan Coach Sammy Mulinge attributed the humiliating defeats to stage fright from his novice players, making their debut trip aborad.

“I think we showed a lot of respect for Brazil and were a little bit afraid of playing against a team like them. We scored less than 10 points in the first two sets and made only 10 in the last game,” said the coach.

Gaudencia Makokha, captain of Kenya said: “Today this wasn’t a good match. We scored fewer points than in the match against Germany. We expect to improve in the next match against Cuba.”

The South American team recovered from a previous loss against China and their win-loss record now stands at 2-1 while Kenya dropped to 0-3.

Francynne Jacintho topped with 16 points, while captain Ellen Braga closed with 10. Mara Leao and Larissa Souza finished with six apiece.

On the Kenyan side Violet Makuto scored six points.

The Brazilian squad had no problems in terms of attack with 32 solid strikes against 11 by Kenya and 9-2 in team blocks. Jacintho blocked four times, while Gabriella Souza blocked twice.

Serving was not a problem either with a 11-2 difference in favour of the team coached by the 2012 Olympic Assistant Coach, Claudio Lopes Pinheiro. Ellen Braga aced in four chances and Larissa Souza in two.

Kenyans also tried to work with their service a couple of times through Eglay Kulova as well as Joy Lusenaka, while Makokha had two successive blocks.

She also won one point in favour of her team.

Despite the result, Makokha worked hard on reception with six excellent attempts, and a total of 16 for the unit coached by Mulinge against six by Brazil.

In the end, there were some positive aspects, according to the technical staff of Kenya, the only African team at the championships.

In the other match, Japan edged the Dominican Republic in five sets of 15-25, 25-22, 17-25, 25-17 and 15-9 to capture sole possession as the only undefeated team in Pool A.

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