Kenyan queens to collide with senegalese: Lung’aho says his charges will play fast game to contain West Africans

By OSCAR PILIPILI

 

The match between Kenya and Senegal highlights the fourth day of the 2014 FIVB World Championships Qualifiers in Nairobi today.

Although the hosts have convincingly won their first two matches, head coach David Lung’aho believes that they are yet to meet quality opposition in the tournament.

“The team is very promising but we expect to meet tougher matches ahead,” he said with apparent reference to their forthcoming fixtures against Senegal today and Tunisia on Saturday.

The two teams — Tunisia and Senegal — are believed to be tricky opponents for Kenya to deal with in the ongoing competition.

Lung’aho said: “The Senegalese girls have the height but we shall play a very fast game to contain them.”

“My players have won the first two matches and they are hungry to win more,” he said.

Senegal team has some of the tallest players in the tournament among them Awa Diallo and Gueye Sokhna who both stand at 193cm in height.

Kenyan players like Ruth Jepng’etich, Mercy Moim, Bracksides Agala, Everline Makuto and Jane Wacu have displayed great games previous matches and Lung’aho hopes that they maintain the form when they meet Senegal today.

“My players have shown great form and I hope that they maintain the momentum as we go into the remaining matches,” Lung’aho said at Safaricom kasarani Stadium yesterday.

Kenya and Senegal go into the match with contrasting result that they achieved in the first two days of the event.

The hosts have won all their matches while the West Africans are still seeking maiden victory after losing two fixtures.

Winless Mozambique takes on Uganda in the first match of the day featuring all first timers in the qualifiers.

The match will then pave way for the next encounter pitting Seychelles against Tunisia at 2pm.

Win-loss record

Tunisia and Kenya win-loss record stands at 2-0 while Uganda and Seychelles are 1-1. Mozambique and Senegal are still at 0-2.

The team with most wins at the end of the tournament that is played on round robin format qualifies for the 2014 FIVB World Championships to be held in Italy later this year.

Meanwhile, Cameroon men’s volleyball National team booked the second African ticket to the 2014 Men’s World Championship in Poland after they won Pool T African qualification tournament held at Sports in Yaoundé, Cameroon last Monday.

Cameroon hammered Gabon 3-0 (25-11, 25-14, 25-17) in a match fully led by the winners.

Sem Dolengombai was Cameroon’s scorer with 13 points, while Dan J’ Mateya led Gabon scorers with 8.

Cameroon finished five-nation round robin tournament with a win-loss ratio of 3-1 to gain nine points equal to both Algeria and Rwanda who have both the same win- loss ratio and total points.

Cameroon overwhelmed the set quotient 10-4 ahead of Algeria who came second with 9-4 quotient and Rwanda who came third with 9-6.

This is the third qualification ticket for the West African country after 1990 and 2010 with their best result in the last edition when they finished 13th after passing the first round.

Algeria clinched their last win against Nigeria in a thriller 3-1 (25-17, 25-14, 21-25, 25-15).

As usual Algeria’s opposite spiker Toufik Mahjoubi led his team and match scorers with 23 points, while Mathew E’ ejeh scored 17 as Nigeria’s best scorer.

TODAY FIXTURES

Mozambique v Uganda, 12pm

Seychelles v Tunisia, 2pm

Senegal v Kenya, 4pm