The going continued to get tougher for the national women's volleyball team as they registered their fourth defeat after falling to Brazil 3-0(25-20,25-17,25-15) in the ongoing FIVB World Cup at the Hamamatsu Arena, Japan yesterday.
Although Kenyans are yet to win a match at the event, team coach Paul Bitok believes the new style of play they have adapted will help the team going forward.
Bitok said they have since decided to play a fast game going forward and although it will take time for the players to fully embrace it, it's the only way to try match up with the best teams in the world.
“We had a discussion as a team on Tuesday and we settled on this approach. Even if you look at the set scores, there is quite some difference and we hope to build on that going forward,” noted Bitok, who recently guided the team to retain the African Games title in Morocco.
The tactician said the fast-game approach was a perfect plan ahead of the forthcoming Continental Olympic qualifiers set for early next year at a yet to be decided venue.
“We are really looking forward to tomorrow's (today) match against Argentina and as much as they also remain winless, they are ranked in the 11 positions higher and it will be interesting to see how it will end. The bottom line is that we just want to be a better outfit going forward. We want other nations to at least see something different in us when they play us next.”
Though Argentina are also winless, they have better-set scores from their last matches. Kenya head to Sapporo City tomorrow after the Argentina match.
Kenya lost to the United States of America, Netherlands, World champions Serbia in their previous encounters with identical sets of 3-0.
Team's captain Mercy Moim and on form Sharon Chepchumba once again top-scored for Kenya with nine and eight points respectively, while Mara Leao and Amanda Francisco were the highest scorers for Brazil with 14 and 12 points respectively.
Elsewhere in Yokohama, Cameroon lost to Japan 3-0 (25-17, 25-17, 25-20 and will come up against Korea this morning before they make another trip to Toyama.