NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 27 – Captain Mercy Moim and Sharon Chepchumba were the stars of the show as Malkia Strikers overcame Cameroon in straight sets at the ongoing women’s World Volleyball Championships in the Netherlands.
The national women’s volleyball side bounced back from two defeats to the hosts and Belgium in their previous Pool A ties to dispatch their African counterparts in sets of 25-20, 27-25 and 25-18.
The Kenyans were quick off the firing blocks with Kenya Commercial Bank’s Chepchumba a constant thorn in the flesh of the West Africans.
The Cameroonians, however, came back blazing in the second set, fighting back to level the scores at 25-25.
Nonetheless, Malkia’s superiority showed and the Kenyans eventually clinched the second set at 27-25.
Come the third set and Kenya were intent on exerting revenge on their opponents for September last year when the Cameroonians won in straight sets to deny Malkia a 10th African title during the continental championship in Rwanda.
They raced to a 4-0 lead before their opponents could muster the first point.
Under the stewardship of skipper Moim – also of KCB– the queens continued to wreak havoc on their archrivals, widening the deficit to 18-12.
Cameroon briefly threatened to complicate matters for Kenya, reducing the deficit to 24-18 and forcing the latter into a couple of serve errors.
However, it was only a matter of time before Malkia would seal their first win of the tournament.
Kenya, who now lie fourth with three points, next face Italy on Thursday – on the same day fifth-placed Cameroon face bottom-placed Puerto Rico.
Italy beat Belgium in straight sets, in an earlier match, to top the group with nine points, three ahead of the Dutch who are yet to play their third match game against Puerto Rico.
