National women’s volleyball team start their African Nation Cup title campaign against Algeria on Tuesday at 6:00pm
The East Africans who have been drawn in a relatively tough pool B will then play Botswana on Wednesday before they complete their group stage match with a tie against much improved and champions Cameroon on Thursday.
Cameroon won against Kenya 3-0 during the 2017 event that was held at their backyard.
Pool A feature hosts Egypt , Senegal and Morocco.
Asked on the pooling, national team middle blocker Triza Atuka said the group was tough but manageable .
Atuka said they will put their best foot forward and hopefully results will come their way.‘ It’s a tough pool considering we will line up against Cameroon who are the defending champions after winning against Kenya in 2017 of the same event. But we have prepared well and we can only hope for the best,”
She added: “ Again teams have of recent times improved and there are no easy matches but we will take one match at a time and see what happens from there.”
National team setter Jane Wacu who plies her trade in Seychelles with club Anse Royal shared Atukas sentiment saying it will be an interesting pool to look out for .
Wacu in particular singled out Cameroon saying they have had proper international friendly matches in Poland coupled with atleast the first six players who play professional in France.
“ We will have to go the extra mile. This is a tough pool and we will have to push ourselves hard. However we are at a good place and we can only hope for the best.”
While in the previous event has acted as a World championship qualifiers- this time around teams will use the event to improve on their FIVB rankings.
Kenya is ranked 20 in the FIVB 2019 January ranking while Cameroon are placed 17.
