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2008 Women’s African
clubs Champions championship- Cairo, Egypt
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Day 1
Ahly, KC Bank and
Mouloudia achieve the first victory
Cairo,
Egypt, April 27, 2008- The organizing team and the
defending champions Al Ahly of Egypt and KC Bank of
Kenya and Mouloudia of Algeria achieved their first
victory in the opening day of the 2008 Women’s African
Clubs Champions Championship as they defeated Nkumba
University of Uganda, VC Canon of RD Congo and Al Shams
of Egypt respectively here at Abdalla Al Faysal Hall in
Ahly club Cairo, Egypt on Sunday.
CAVB President Dr. Amr Elwani opened the competition in
presence of many guests of honor led by Local Organizing
Committee Mr. Mohamed Abdelwahab, Ahly treasurer and
Board member Mahmoud Bagneed, Shams president Abdel
Monem El Malah, the control committee president Mr. Baba
Sy, CC member Amada Sidiyane and referee delegate
Salamba and CAVB technical director Howyda Mondy.
The competition will feature three matches on Monday as
Poisons of Kenya plays Bafia of Cameroon in Pool A, VC
Canon of RD Congo meets Nkumba Univrsity of Uganda and
Mafolofolo of Botswana vs. Shams of Egypt in Pool B.
Al Ahly vs. Nkumba University
Al Ahly of Egypt swept Nkumba University of Uganda 3-0
(25-12, 25-8, 25-17) in 59 minutes. Al Ahly coach played
with all his list of players to give all the chance to
all the team before the more difficult matches in the
competition.
The match was a one side game except the third set when
Nkumba played their best and led many times before Ahly
coach returned back some standing players to win the
match in straight sets.
“I tried all the players to give them the chance because
it was an easy match. Today Esthter Dusu, Miral Raouf
and Sherihan Sameh were the best plyers in My team.”
Ahly coach Raouf Abdel Kader said.
Al Shams vs. Mouloudia
Mouloudia rebounded from 2 sets behind to win their
Marathon against Al Shams 3-2 (21-25, 21-25, 25-10,
25-19, 15-11) in 110 minutes of thriller action. After
Shams won 2 successive sets due to the stable block,
Mouloudia turned the match from upside downwards due to
the successful combinations led by the match star Fatima
Okazi the setter and the efficient center Nassima
Benhamouda who was the match scorer with 27 points.
Mouloudia head coach Ahmed Boukacem changed the strategy
of his team after losing 2 sets and said cheerfully: “My
players have no enough experience of such competitions
but when we changed our strategy to the fast attacks
through the centre players. I think we want some time to
get the experience through this competition.”
Shams head coach Hesham Badrawy took over the
responsibility only two weeks before the competition but
he was not happy with the acute decline of the
performance after the first and second sets. “The
players started their training only 2 weeks before and
this is not enough to traoin for such a big competition,
but we hope to recover and to win the next matches in
the pool to qualify to the semifinal.” Said Badrawy.
Mouloudia started the match using their strong attackers
Amel Khamtache and Yasmine Oudni and thus they led 8-4
at the FTT. Quickly Shams players arranged their block
led by Ingy El Shami to turn over and to lead 16-15
before winning the first set 25-21 after a group of
efficient spikes from Dina Assal and Samar Ebeid.
The second set showed the same performance from Shams
players as they dominated the net action through Menna
Ahmed and Ingy to win 25-21.
The match went to another route when the experienced
Algeria National team setter Fatima Okazi succeeded to
start her skillful setting to the centers Nassima
Benhamouda and Dalel Draa to deceive Al Shams block and
to have big point deficit till 20-8. Again Fatima made
many deceiving places in Shams court to allow her team
to win the set widely 25-10.
The highly motivated Mouloudia players continued the
same rhythm in the fourth set and again Fatima led the
fast attacks through position 3 to widely lead 11-2.
After time out Shams head coach Hecham Badrawy arranged
the block of Ingy and Menna relatively to come near
13-9. Mouloudia players were more consistent to win the
set and continued their potent spikes from all net
positions to achieve the set 25-19 and to bring the
match to draw 2-2 in sets and extends the game to
tiebreak.
Mouloudia continued their superior performance and
played with the spirit of victory and thus they reached
to 8-1 at the court turn. Shams players took the matter
seriously for a while to decrease the point deficit to
12-8 for Mouloudia. Again due to mistakes of Shams
players Mouloudia continued to win the set 15- and the
long Marathon 3-2.
VC Canon vs. KC Bank
The former African champions KC Bank of Kenya started
their way in this competition successfully after they
took over VC Canon of RD Congo in straight sets 25-21,
25-16, 25-16 in 60 minutes. The Kenya coach Paul Bitok
was happy to start his way in the competition with a
victory that made them ready to compete for the trophy.
“We have to win each match to secure the top of our
strong pool before the more important clashes in the
semifinal,” Said Bitok. “We used to play with poor
performance at the beginning of the competitions but we
hope to reach to our top performance when we face the
strong teams Shams and Mouloudia because also we played
only one match in the local league and we have to try
all our players.” He added.
VC Conon started the match more aggressive and succeeded
to be the dominant side through their solid block of
Muanandi Bashaie and Inoku Bofeyi and thus they led 8-6
and stayed ahead using the bad reception of the Kenyan
team to continue leading 16-12. With the experience of
the superstar Dorcas Ndasaba, KC Bank came on time when
VC canon led 21-19 to score 6 successive points that
allowed them to win the set 25-21.
In the second set KC Bank setter Esther Ouna played a
great role with her combinations using the centers and
the spikers so they won both the second and third sets
in the same result 21-16. |
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