2015 Women’s African Nations Championship- Day 2
Algeria warmed up for their much awaited clash against host Kenya on Sunday with a 3-1 (25-17, 17-25, 25-20,25-15) victory against Botswana on day two of the women’s Africa Cup of Nations Championship at Kasarani Indoor Arena in Nairobi, Kenya on Saturday.
Algeria who had a month long training in Italy as part of their preparation to the championship, to qualify one African team to the world Cup in Japan started the match on a high tempo winning the opening set 25-17 in a packed Gymnasium.
Botswana who took part in the 2015 Rwanda Genocide Memorial tournament last week in Kigali on their way to Kenya re-grouped in the subsequent set which they led from the first whistle to the last only to level the score one-all with a 25-17 to throw the game wide open.
The third set was a cracker with both team exchanging leads but ‘Mafolofolo’ were dented a blow when center blocker Daisy Golekanye picked an ankle injury with the southerners up on their north African colleagues heels (17-18) but Algeria took advantage of a weaker defence department to win the set 25-20.
Tracy Chaba who plays for Kutlwano back in Botswana was no match for Algeria in the second set where she provided excellent services and attacks which gave the opponents hard time in the reception but her effort did very little to propell her side to victory when they lost the last set 25-15.
“Daisy is one of the senior players with excellent blocks and because Algeria are very good in attacks, her blocks kept them at bay. The injury was a a big blow to us. When she left the court, the team went down, “noted Chaba who once played club volleyball in Algeria with Marshall Bilatex.
Italian Francoise Salvagni who took charge of Algeria after a successful one month stint with the side following a recommendation by FIVB immediately turned his attention to the upcoming match against Kenya Sunday evening.
“I know Kenya very well and the fact that they will be playing before their fans will even make this match the best of the tournament. Tomorrow’s match (Sunday) will be a small war and we are ready because we prepared for a bigger war,” said Salvagni.
Tunisia beat Morocco
Tunisia came from a set down to beat Morocco 3-1 (24-26, 25-17, 25-21, 25-13) in the second match at the 6,000 sitter Gymnasium. Samir Dcha who has been with the Moroccan side for barely a year drew lessons from their loss but was full of praise of his players who he described as ‘very young and inexperienced’
“I don’t know what to expect from Cameroon but I just want my players to forget about today’s loss and concentrate on the coming match,”
Morocco who has missed the last two editions of this Cup is building a team for future championships with an eye on the next All Africa Games.
“We have young squad who just played together for the first time about two months ago but I want to build a team for four or five years to come with main aim being qualifying for the next All Africa Games in 2019.” added Ocha.
Four matches will be played on Sunday with Cameroon taking on Morocco, Kenya versus Algeria while Botswana will clash with Mauritius as Senegal play Tunisia.
Elvince Joshhua from Kenya
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