Malkia Strikers players, Mercy Moim (left) and Ruth Chepng’etich(right) beaten by a Chinese player.
JAPAN, August 31 – National women’s volleyball team head coach, David Lung’aho, is hoping to record his first FIVB Women’s World Cup win against fellow Africans, Algeria after falling in straight sets to China for their seventh defeat on the bounce on Monday.
The Asian champions trounced the African titleholders 25-7, 25-15 and 25-14 to record their fourth successive win in the 12-team round robin competition where the top two will qualify for 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Malkia Strikers who have beaten Algeria twice this year, will meet the North African side on Tuesday in a match where both sides will be out to avoid the wooden spoon at the global showdown where USA top the standings after losing once.
“Congratulations to China for a splendid job. Their coach is obviously doing a great job. We gave it our best. We knew China are a strong team and we tried to fight but it was too much for us.
“We learned a lot. For us, the experience we are getting from the World Cup is the most important thing. We’ll go back and build on that because we still believe our time will come. We are happy playing in the World Cup and playing against the top teams and we always want to be here,” Lung’aho stated.
“Tomorrow (Tuesday), we will play against another African team, Algeria, and we really want to win. For us, we always believe in our strength. We will depend on our power and speed against Algeria. It should be interesting because it’s an African affair and we met two months ago in the African final. We want to get our first win,” the coach who guided the team to their first ever Grand Prix gold added.
Captain, Brackcides Agala was upbeat they will at least win a match in their remaining five outings in the otherwise underwhelming tournament.
“Congratulations to China. But I also want to congratulate my team today; we tried hard and played well. We know China are a good team with good speed but we really tried to defend and block their balls,” Agala declared.
Against China, Evelyn Makuto was Kenya’s top scorer with10 points while Yang Junjing scooped13 as the Chinese women produced nine aces compared to four for Malkia Strikers.
Liu Xiaotong received the Most Impressive Player award after bagging11 kills, one block and an ace for the winners.
China dominated the entire match where they had 46 spikes compared to Kenya’s 27.
The title contention was left wide open as world champions USA, Russia and Serbia shared a 6-1 record after Day Seven’s action in this World Cup.
