NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 14- The Kenya women’s volleyball Under-23 team lost their fourth straight match at the FIVB World Championship in Slovania, going down by straight sets to South American side Cuba who picked up their first victory in the competition.
The Cubans needed 55 minutes to see off a resilient Kenya side with Ailama Cese Montalvo and Diaris De La Caridad Perez Ramos delivering the day’s best performance, Kenya losing in set scores of 15-9, 15-10, 15-7, 15-12 in 55 minutes.
Kenya’s best performance was in the final set when they raced on to the lead up until the 11 point mark when Cuba came from three points down to go all the way to winning the set to much disappointment of the Kenyans who were inches of their first set win in the tournament.
“We didn’t start well. Later on, we improved but finishing the set remained our problem. In the second set, we started to play and fight. Cuba is a very good team. They are tall and have powerful attacks and good blocks,” Kenya head coach Catherine Mabwi said after the match.
Her sentiments were echoed by skipper Shyrine Jepkemboi who said; “We did our best today. We were expecting more; we tried to win this match. Nevertheless, we had bad luck in our match as well.”
Cuba’s Perez and Ailama had identical twelve-point outputs while Yvone Wavinya top scored for Kenya with eight points, including one ace. Cuba made the difference with a 39-19 spiking firework.
Cuba outclassed Kenya in the opening set with a strong 15-9 win. The young Africans continued to fight in the succeeding sets, but setter Gretell Elena Moreno Borrero helped Cuba run clutch plays that ensured match victory.
Mabwi’s girls will hope for a better performance when the girls face off with Japan in their final group match on Friday, hopefully gunning to win their first set of the tournament.
