The national women’s volleyball team held nerve to see off stubborn and champions Cameroon 3-2 (18-25,16-25,27-25,29-27 and 15-12) in the ongoing African Nations Cup event in Cairo, Egypt on Thursday night.
However it was the tactical move by the Kenya technical bench to change the line up in the third set that returned the East Africans in the game before going ahead to win the match altogether .
The development saw Kenya return the favour after the Central Africans had won against them during the finals in 2017 of the same event.
With the win, East Africans completed the pool B matches with eight points unbeaten and booked a date with Senegal on Saturday in one of the semi finals.
Interestingly, Kenya who had won against Algeria and Botswana 3-0 in early group matches will play Senegal in a repeat of 2017 semi-final same as Cameroon who will play against Egypt in another semi final.
In the match against Cameroon, Kenya technical bench led by FIVB Itallian attached coach Shailen Ramdoo had fielded Janet Wanja, Brackcides Agala, Edith Wisa ,Violet Makuto, captain Mercy Moim, Sharon Chepchumba and libero Elizabeth Wanyama to do duty for the East Africans.
However, the squad failed to get the footing loosing the first two sets 18-25 and 16-25.
In the third set, Ramdoo made tactical changes resting Moim, Chepchumba, Agala, Wanyama and Makuto who paved way for Leonida Kasaya, Noel Murambi, Triza Atuka, Aggripina Kundu and Emmaculate Chemtai and the move seemed to have worked .
Although the team trailed for the better part of the play 3-8 at the first technical time out, Kenya grew in the match to tie 16-16 and 17-16 at the second technical time out, they powered through to extend the lead 21-20 before again they tied at 23-23,24-24 as Wisa and Kasaya impressed.
Kenya later won the set 27-25 but trailed Cameroon 1-2 in the sets ratio to set up a fourth set.
Again Kenya trailed in both TTO 6-8 and 16-17 but later turned table on their opponents and won the set 29-27 that led the two teams to tie 2-2 sets to set up tie breaker.
For the first time in the entire match, Kenya took lead, 4-2 and 7-6 before both teams changed sides and Kenya picked from where they left scoring at will to lead 13-9 before they sealed the win with 15-12.
All teams have a rest day today
