After flooring favourites Kwanthanze 3-1 (16-25,25-23,26-24,25-21) in the just concluded Amaco/Paul Bitok International tournament over the weekend in Eldoret, Cheptil girls volleyball team believe they are now ripe to challenge for the national secondary schools' title.
The Rift Valley outfit finished third last year during the national secondary School games behind Soweto and winners Kwanthanze.
However, Cheptil coach Stephen Mutai said if the result on Sunday is anything to go by, then the national title is wide open and anyone could run away with it.
Mutai observed: “The win is a huge motivation to the players who have played second fiddle to Kwanthanze both at the national and East Africa games. Winning against them is a clear indication of how competitive the school games will be, with no clear favourites ahead of the school games,”
He added: “The tournament was timely as we have Nandi North Sub County games at Kaiboi Secondary School this Friday and we want to build on that momentum going forward as we target the national games' crown. But generally, we will have to perform well through the other stages to qualify for the nationals.”
The tactician said they are going to work on the services and backcourt defence which was their main undoing during the two-day event at the Eldoret Polytechnic grounds.
“We will have to improve on our service and backcourt defence. Otherwise, the team is good and raring to go. One thing I’m happy about is that most of the players are in Form Two and if we keep up with this type of performance, then the national title will be ours to lose going forward,” said Mutai.
Kwanthanze coach Justine Kigwari, on the other hand, remained positive saying, “We will go back to the drawing board and bounce back. We were using the event as a build-up ahead of the school games to see what areas to work on.”
