Kenya fall to Peru in FIVB Grand Prix opener
Peru's Angela Levya (front left) attempts to block Esther Wangeci's spike during the FIVB Grand Prix Pool O match in Mexico on June 27, 2015. PHOTO | FIVB |
What you need to know:
- The newly crowned African champions had carried a high degree of confidence going into the match, but they found the going tough against the South Americans whom they were meeting for the first time.
The national women’s volleyball team started their FIVB World Grand Prix campaign on a wrong note, losing 3-0 (18-25 12-25 23-25) to Peru in Veracruz, Mexico on Saturday.
The newly crowned African champions had carried a high degree of confidence going into the match, but they found the going tough against the South Americans whom they were meeting for the first time.
Coach David Lung’aho said the loss came as a result of a combination of factors, but that he hoped the team would perform better in the subsequent matches.
"Each player has the responsibility to do their job during the game. In today's lineup, our blockers did not perform as expected and we also failed to attack with the right intensity. This is just the first match, and we hope to produce better results in our next games,” he told Nation Sport on phone from Mexico.
Kenya Prisons attacker Evelyn Makuto, who was voted the Most Valuable Player during the African Nations Championships, was the team’s highest scorer with 11 points, while right attacker Angela Levya scored a team-high 22 for Peru.
The two teams were meeting in the Grand Prix for the first time, and the first set was an evenly balanced affair.
With the two teams tied at 12-12, Levya scored nine straight points to guide her team to a 25-18 win.
Kenya found themselves chasing down the opponents throughout the second set, and Lung’aho’s girls managed only 12 points in that 46-minute set where Peru prevailed by a 25-12 margin.
Kenya are scheduled to come up against Mexico at 8pm on Saturday, before wrapping up their Pool O matches with a duel against Columbia on Sunday.
It had also been a bad day for the Africa Nations championships runners-up, Algeria, who lost 3-0 (25-19, 25-18, 25-16) to Cuba in their opening match. Algeria are the only other African team in the competition.
