The Netherlands women's volleyball team coach Jamie Morrison has taken notice of Kenya's sudden improvement in blocks and services in the ongoing FIVB World Cup in Hamamatsu, Japan.
The Netherlands defeated the East Africans 3-0 (25-12, 25-19, 25-17) yesterday morning, inflicting Kenya to a second loss in the event after they fell to United States of America 3-0 in the opener on Saturday. Kenya will now line up against World champions Serbia today.
Coach Morrison noticed the East African sudden improvement having played them during the Olympic Intercontinental qualifiers early last month in Italy.
Morrison said: "Kenya have gotten better in the last two months. I was especially impressed with their defence in the first set and their serve in the second set got us into trouble. I’m happy with the result. We will continue to improve as this tournament goes on. I thought there were pieces today that were better than yesterday, so we will continue to improve tomorrow night against Brazil."
On their performance against the Netherlands, Kenya coach Bitok said: "I can say the Kenya team came into this match knowing we will be playing against The Netherlands, a team we played against a few months ago in Olympic qualifiers. We lost with bad scores then—post 7-25 loss in one set.'
He added: "We wanted to try our best and improve our scores and use the match to gauge ourselves after playing well against the USA in the opener. We also wanted to improve our level in as far as the rankings are concerned."
Bitok said: “The Netherlands were more under pressure than us. We pushed them, especially on the service and it worked for us. At some point, we were very close to the scores. What is still remaining for us is to start well because we are always following from behind. At one time, we were trailing 9-1 and we managed to tie the game 13-13. I hope our experience today will help us in the next match. I am sure if we continue like this, we will get better and better."
Captain Mercy Moim and Violet Makuto emerged Kenya's top scorers with nine and seven points respectively.
Meanwhile, the national women’s volleyball players are demanding their unpaid allowances dating back last month when they featured in the Intercontinental Olympic Qualifiers in Italy.
The team which recently retained the All African Games title in Morocco is yet to be paid for the the last two events— Intercontinental Olympic Qualifiers and African Games alongside the ongoing World Cup. Teams coach Paul Bitok backed up the girls' demand, terming the trend as unfair.
“After the match against the Netherlands on Sunday morning, the players called for the meeting where they demanded their allowances and really as a coach I understand where they are coming from. Three events and no allowances at all this is really not fair at all,” said Bitok.
