2015 Women’s African Nations Championship- Day 4
Hosts and defending champions Kenya along with Algeria, Cameroon and Dark horses Senegal booked their tickets to the semifinal of the 2015 Women’s African Club Championship after they all achieved victories in day 4 at the end of the group stage held at Kasarani Indoor Arena in Nairobi, Kenya on Monday.
The 8 time African Champions Kenya continued their victories with clean sheet as they cruised past Botswana 3-0 (25-19, 25-12, 25-18) to improve their win- loss ratio in Pool A to 3-0 and continued as the only team who didn’t drop a set in the preliminary round.
Kenya will be joined by Algeria from the same pool to semis after the latter clinched their second win over Mauritius 3-0 (25-15, 25-15, 26-24) to improve to 2-1. Botswana came third with 1-2 record and Mauritius finished at the bottom of the table with 0-3.
Senegal continued their thrilling come back for the third match in a row as they came as usual from two sets behind to beat the emerging Morocco team 3-2 (23-25, 22-25, 25-9, 25-18, 15-9) to lead Pool B with 3-0 and 6 points. Cameroon came back to their optimum performance on time to beat Tunisia 3-2 (15-25, 25-18, 28-26, 24-26, 15-13) and clinch the semifinal slot. Tunisia came third in Pool B with 1-2 record ahead of Morocco who finished fourth.
Now Algeria will meet pool B leaders Senegal in one of the semifinals on Wednesday with hosts and defending champions Kenya playing Cameroon who finished second in pool B.
In the Play off 5 to 8 positions Botswana faces Morocco, while Tunisia line up against Mauritius,
Pool A
Kenya v Botswana 3-0 (25-19, 25-12, 25-18)
Algeria v Mauritius 3-0 (25-15, 25-15, 26-24)
Kenya used their talented players to beat Botswana 3-0 (25-19, 25-12, 25-18). Kenyan coach David Lung’aho is expecting a tough duel against a tricky Cameroonian side and he will be spending Tuesday’s rest day to try and analyze west Africans game as he prepares errase 2014 memory of local fans after Kenya lost a world championship qualifiers to Tunisia. Some fans are yet to forgive Lung’aho for letting the ticket slid off his hands but he may win back their loyalty if he can take Kenya to Japan’s world Cup.
Cameroon have excellent attacks and blocks but Lung’aho will try to take advantage of their slow game to win point. “We just need to compose ourselves and receive well; I know most of their players are not fast and we would want to capitalize on that” said Lung’aho.
Algeria played with most of their list to capture the second win over Botswana 3-0 (25-19, 25-12, 25-18). The Algerian coach Francois Salvagni used most of the substitutes in the third set but he was obligated to return back to his main stars to save the set and keep the straight sets win.
Pool B
Senegal v Morocco 3-2 (23-25, 22-25, 25-9, 25-18, 15-9)
Cameroon v Tunisia 3-2 (15-25, 25-18, 28-26, 24-26, 15-13)
Senegal who were seeded third in group ‘B, considered pool of ‘death’ at the start of championship topped the group having won all their three matches by identical 3-2 sets. In all the matches, Senegal pulled a late comeback in the third sets to turn around their games which has earned them the title ‘Queens of comeback’
“We don’t know why we always comeback late in the game because during team talks before any match we always tell ourselves to take the lead but that doesn’t happen, maybe we’ll need to be in front in our semifinal match against Kenya,” Senegal’s dependable player Fatou Diouck observed.
Asked about her hopes of playing Kenya in the finals, Fatou added: “I prefer to play Kenya in the final than Algeria. I love playing here; I love the people and they love our team too but I would really want to have a different feeling playing Kenya in front of their home fans.”
Algeria though are favorites ahead of the championship but Senegal’s head coach Amadou Sene plan to organise their game by playing fast balls.
Cameroon came from a set down to book a semi final berth in a dramatic 3-2 (25-15, 18-25, 28-26, 24-26, 15-13) win over Tunisia in their final group B match. Cameroon had only trained together for one week before the championship and coach Akono Jean Rene was satisfied by her players performances in the match.
“I am not expecting much in our next match because we never trained as a team for long,” noted Rene.
Semifinal Match Schedule on Wednesday 17 June
Play off 5 to 8
10:00 : Botswana v Morocco
12:00: Tunisia v Mauritius
Semifinal 1 to 4
14:00 : Senegal v Algeria
16:00 : Kenya v Cameroon
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