PARIS, France, Jul 30 – Kenya Pipeline outside hitter Leonida Kasaya is urging her young Malkia Strikers teammates to up their ante in the remaining pool B matches at the Paris 2024 Olympics ostensibly to keep up with the cutthroat nature of the challenge.
After a straight set loss to Brazil on Monday, Kenya will face world number 3 Poland on Wednesday before wrapping up their group stage campaign against the 7th ranked Japanese team on Friday.
The 23-times South American Champions Brazil, ranked second in the FIVB World Rankings, bossed the court as they annihilated the 10-times African champions 3-0 (25-14, 25-13, 25-12), outscoring them in kills (42 to 21), blocks (16 to three) and aces (two to zero).
Kasaya, 30, played for Kenya at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and as a two times Olympian, she feels obligated to instill requisite confidence in the young crop of players, urging them to embrace the challenge presented by the formidable teams at the Games.
But Kasaya, who returned from maternity leave early last year, sees motivation in guiding her rookie teammates, stating, “We just need courage. Each member of the young team members need to push harder.”
“My performance was average, not that bad, but I need to put in more effort as a senior player, because junior players will be looking up to me, so I am compelled to perform well. I’m not at my very best though, compared to Tokyo where I was in fine form. Upon return from maternity leave, I have not reverted to my level of play, but with time I will be back in the groove and regain my usual form,” Kasaya, who was the second-best scorer for Kenya against Brazil, told Capital Sport.
Reflecting on their effort against the South American queens, Kasaya went on: “In my opinion, we really tried because we played against one of the top teams in the world. Technically, just a little slip-up on the kills; I believe we did well on reception. With courage and some a calculated attack effort, everything will be okay. We just need to upscale our reception to 80 percent.”
Comparing Brazil’s class of 2020 and the present team, Kasaya believes Paris team players are a much revamped unit, “as every system in their team is working, the backcourt and attacks.”
Against Poland on Wednesday, Kasaya says they will have no choice but go all out for the world number three.
“What we are going to do is summon up courage and support each other. We will need to play an all-round game and if we adopt all facets of the game in our system, for every team we play, there will be an improvement.”
“Against Brazil, we were scoring which is a good sign, previously we could only manage single-digit scores when we played them, now at least we try and reach 10-plus, Kasaya, who is a Malava Girls alumni said.
She went on… “I know some of the young players might have developed some stage fright of sorts because it was their first time on the big stage. They have not gained the much-needed momentum, and courage of playing at such a level. The more they go on the more their courage goes up.”
-Agripina on her ratings-
Kenya Pipeline women’s volleyball team libero Agripina Kundu is impressed by Malkia’s fighting spirit against Japan.
She said: “Our reception was good, we received the balls well, our undoing was to kill the ball, but we will work towards improving that aspect of the game and next game against Poland we should be good to go. We must work on our side outs, as well.”
Agripina is one of Malkia’s most experienced players having participated in the 2014 FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix and Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
At club level she played for Kenya Pipeline Company in 2014 after a company director offered her a permanent job at the end of a match. In the same year, she began to represent Kenya in volleyball.
LEONIDA KASAYA FACT FILE
NAME: Leonida Kasaya
AGE: 30
HEIGHT: 169
WEIGHT: 71kg
POSITION: Outside hitter
CURRENT CLUB: Kenya Pipeline
FORMER CLUB: KCB Women’s Volleyball Team
HIGH SCHOOL: Malava Girls High School
FAVOURITE FOOD: Ugali and mrenda.
OLYMPICS APPEARACE: Kasaya is making her second appearance at Olympics.
HOBBIES: Kasaya likes to plait hair.
ROLE MODEL: Gabriela Braga Guimaraes from Brazil.
-Alex Isaboke is reporting from Paris, France –
