The national women’s volleyball team Malkia Strikers went down in three sets of 25-14 25-17 25-15 to Poland during their second group B match of the ongoing Olympic Games played at South Paris Arena,France.
Kenya keen on bouncing back after the opening loss to Brazil pinned Poland in the opening set and took a 3-1 lead inside three minutes but Poland fought back to equal the scores and eventually won the set 25-14.
Kenya returned into the second set a more determined side and showed promise matching their opponents strength.Overseas bound opposite Pamela Adhiambo scored 10 points to threaten Poland’s lead.
Slow centre court defending coupled with poor blocking prioved Malkia strikers bane and lost the second set 25-17.
Poland ranked in 4th place wrapped up the win after clinching the 3rd set 25-15 to leave Kenya with a mountain to climb ahead of their third and final group B match against Japan on Saturday.
Pamela Adhiambo and Veronica Oluoch emerged as Kenya’s top scorers with 14 and 13 points respectively.
‘’I believe I have worked so hard and improved on my strong points that’s why I was able to improve on the points I got in the match.The motiovation was us reaching the 17 points and that really pushed uys hard’’, remarked Pamela.
‘’Our service and our attack was good that’s why we got higher points than what we got against Brazil.We need to improve on reception against Japan as well as the blocks.Poland’s good team,their attacks were higher’’,Veronica intimated.
‘’You know as African’s we know to be proud of our achievements and when I make such points it encourages the whole team’’, she added.
Kenya will wind up her group matches against Japan on Saturday.
‘’Japan has a better back court than us and they are almost the same height like us and we will be equal to the task,they might be up in ranking but we are going to perform better because we are the Africa queens and we believe we will conquer the world one day’’ opined.
The two highest ranked teams in each pool and the best two third-placed teams will advance to the quarterfinals.
Malkia Strikers: Esther Mutinda,Veronica Oluoch,Leonida Kasaya,Belinda Barasa,Emmaculate Misoki,Trizah Atuka,Loice Simiyu,Juliana Namutira,Lorine Chebet,Agripina Kundu,Edith Wisa