Federation Egyptienne de Volleyball

2008 Women’s junior African Nations Championship

Egypt and Tunisia continued clean sheet

Nairobi, Kenya, September 11, 2008- It was cold outside the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani in Nairobi, Kenya on Wednesday, but Tunisia were red hot in their 3-1 victory over Seychelles in the third day of African Junior Women Volleyball Championship. Egypt continued their winning rhythm and achieved their second victory over Senegal to stay in a good position to defend the title they achieved 2 years ago.

Tunisia vs. Seychelles 3-1

According to form, Tunisia should have been on top from the off, but in the opening exchanges; they failed to dominate the opposition and allowed Seychelles to stay with them at the first technical timeout, 8-7. But it didn’t stay that way for long. Blocks by Agrebi Rahma and Sassi Nadia Paula put Tunisia ahead by two and a big spike by Rahma extended it to three points. Fatma and Habachi Faten also showed their strength and Nadia added two spikes to help the Tunisians to a 16-7 lead at the second technical timeout. The Seychelles also made errors. Cedras Samura was unable to handle a serve by Ben Youssef Sonia at 23-12 and a long serve by Fatma handed Tunisia the first set. In the second set, Seychelles tried to stay with the pace. The blocking improved considerably, but even when one attack was repelled another Tunisian white wave followed. The elusive Fatma and the fiery Sonia cranked out the points, 8-7 Tunisia at the first technical time out. When the Seychelles’ bench saw things turn awry, head coach JM Roche called his first time out of the second set to try and instill some self-belief into his team, as Tunisia looked ready to run away with it. A brilliant dig by Samura could not prevent Fatma from gobbling up the rebound and firing Tunisia into the second technical time out with a five-point lead, 16-11. On the restart, Bonne Marielle hammered an awesome winner on the left, and her bullet jump serves unsettled the Tunisian defence. The Seychelles’ Polish libero Samura was hurling herself into the mouth of the cannon to thwart Tunisia’s firepower, but the Northern Africans were in control at 18-13, forcing Roche to call for a time out. Rahma spiked and then pulled off a point-saving dig from Marielle’s smooth back court attack, and Cherif Nouha added a wristy drive down the left side for 22-13, immediately followed by exactly the same move. Jouini Khaoula then pushed one into space for set point at 24-14, and Fatma’s attack had too much power for the Seychelles’ defense, 25-14, 2-0. Seychelles must have learnt their mistake in the third set, judging from their composed play. Coming from 3-4 down, they managed to contain the Tunisian fury, 8-7 at the first technical time out. Marielle was outstanding as she delivered unanswered spikes to the Tunisian side. After both teams tied at 19-19, it was Seychelles who would break off for a deserving 25-23 win. Fatma’s power serves, including two aces, helped Tunisia to a 4-1 lead in the fourth set. Fatma then showed what she can do- with a huge spike and a great block on Marielle as Tunisia took a ten-point lead at 16-6. Lesperance Flora of Seychelles responded with two decent spikes and if the fans thought there was a sense of inevitability about the match, they insisted on going down fighting. Time and again they came up with big defensive plays, but the force that was Tunisia still proved overwhelming. As the match drew to a close, Tunisia, massively, won 25-9.

Egypt vs. Senegal 3-0

The defending champions, Egypt extended their win-loss record to 2-0 with another polished performance, brushing aside Senegal 25-20, 25-11, 25-14 to drop them to 0-2. “Our game plan worked. We knew how the Senegalese play and contained them. They are quite tall girls and we had to improve our blocking department. This helped us win. We are now focusing on our next match against Tunisia tomorrow (today),” said Egyptian coach, Hesham Badrawy. The Egyptian’s spiking, notably from Abouel Nermin and Hussein Yasmin out wide, was more accurate and venomous, taking them to a one point lead, 8-7, at the first technical time-out. When the Senegalese attack ran up against strong Egyptian blocking and fell behind 10-8, coach, Amadou Sene called for a time out.Amina Diop, feeding off a short set from Adama Adama, brought Senegal back into it. Egyptian, Elbitar Dina was proving too hot to handle for blockers, Amina and Fatou Mamy and an excellent back court dig from Esraa Ahmed enabled Abd El Fattah Nahla to stroke another beautiful winner up the right. Yasmin gave Tall Awa Awa a taste of her own medicine with some razor-sharp blows down the middle, and coach, Amadou Sene had to call for a time out. But there was nothing Senegal could do to stop Dina pouncing like a panther for 19-18 lead. The Senegalese attack completely broke down, prompting a timeout at 22-18, and Nassef Nada thrashed one past libero Awa Awa on the resumption for 23-18. Yasmin carved through the Senegalese defense for set point at 24-19, and the same player popped up on the opposite flank to close it 25-20.In the second set, Egypt were again on the driving seat with Nada, Emam Menatalla doing the damage. A brilliant Amina spike could not prevent Nosseir Lamis from gobbling up the rebound and firing Egypt into the first technical time out with a five-point lead, 8-3.And that was the same song by the second technical time out, 16-4, for Egypt. A couple of successive errors by the Egyptians couldn’t help their opponents, who were left ton wonder what had hit them after going down 25-11 for the second. In the third, the persistent Diop Amina tried to spark Senegal back to life with a sizzling spike on the right, but an astonishing dipping attack from Nahla sent the Senegalese into a time out trailing 5-8.A Senegalese comeback looked unlikely with Egypt capable of shifting up a gear when necessary. Nahla did just that, 16-9 at the second technical time out.Fatma and Yasmin scored impressively to send Egypt into a time out with their lead at 21-9, before Dina ended it 25-14.

Tunisia will now meet Egypt on Thursday, in a match that will be of untold importance to the Kenyans. Kenya, who lost 3-1 to Egypt on Tuesday, will be praying hard for the Pharaohs to lose the tie in this round-robin championship. Kenya meets Senegal in one way match for the host country who wants to win to stay in competition.