•The East Africans depart to Sapporo today where the Dominican Republic, Japan and event champions China lie in wait having lost five matches against the United States of America, Serbia, the Netherlands and Brazil in the identical sets 3-0.
In Yokohama, Cameroon fell to Korea 0-3(21-25,18-25,18-25) and will now proceed to Toyama where they are scheduled to take on the Netherlands, world champions Serbia and Argentina
The national women's volleyball team coach Paul Bitok is anticipating another difficult round of FIVB World Cup in Sapporo after the team wrapped up the Hamamatsu event win-less, going down to Argentina 3-0 (25-14, 25-19, 25-15) in their last match yesterday in Japan.
The East Africans depart to Sapporo today where the Dominican Republic, Japan and event champions China lie in wait—having lost five matches against the United States of America, Serbia, The Netherlands and Brazil with identical sets of 3-0.
Bitok said: "From now, we are going to play against Asian countries including Korea, China and Japan, who have a rather very fast game. I hope what we have learned here will help us to play better. We have started to play a fast game and we hope it will help us when we meet such teams. It is not going to be easy but we have to work on our weaknesses, especially reception and that will help us because we are strong in attack.”
He added: “Our team today (yesterday) didn’t play well. We wanted a repeat of our match against Brazil but things didn't work. We couldn’t contain the pressure from Argentina because they made a few mistakes. But as I said, we will continue to think long term and try to use the same system. It may work for us or not but in the end, I believe it will give us good results," he added.
Kenya captain Mercy Moim, who once again, alongside on-form Sharon Chepchumba top-scored for Kenya with seven and 10 points respectively conceded defeat.
She said: “I congratulate Argentina team. I think we played badly throughout the game. It's quite ironical that we play better against top teams and we tend to dip in form when facing average sides."
She continued: “ We have to correct this. I think we have to improve our reception and blocks because it's been our main undoing. When the blocks aren't working well in front, we have problems covering in the backcourt. I think we have to play the way we train. We need to play a cool game."
Argentina captain Julieta Lazcano lauded Kenya for their strong attack but was quick to note they are happy to have recorded their first win of the 12-nation tournament that is being played on the round-robin format.
In Yokohama, Cameroon who also remain win-less but boast of bagging two sets against the Dominican Republic fell to Korea 0-3 (21-25,18-25,18-25) yesterday, and will now proceed to Toyama where they are scheduled to take on the Netherlands, world champions Serbia and Argentina.