NAIROBI, Kenya, July 31 – The national women’s volleyball team’s hopes of a first-ever win at the Olympics took a hit when they lost 3-0 to Poland in their second match of the Paris Games on Wednesday night.
The two-time European champions won 25-14, 25-17 and 25-15 to notch their second victory of the tournament although Malkia Strikers should be proud of the bravery they exhibited at various stages of the game.
Coach Japheth Munala’s side began the game brightly, going point-for-point with their opponents in the first set until the Poles raced to a 14-6 lead.
A time-out called by Munala did not seem to do much as Poland extended their lead to 19-9 before eventually wrapping the set in approximately 18 minutes.
The second set started in similar fashion, Malkia Strikers responding in kind to every point notched by the Poles until the 5-5 scoreline.
However, the European giants’ superiority came to the fore as they extended their lead to 12-6, prompting another time-out by the African giants.
The girls came back guns blazing after the timeout, leveraging on a vociferous courtside crowd to add 11 more points although the Poles once again did just enough to take one step closer to victory.
Poland started strongly in the ultimate set, racing to a 7-1 lead before Munala called for another timeout to restrategise.
It seemed to work wonders again as the troops came back rejuvenated, reducing the scores to 8-6.
Unfortunately, it seemed a false dawn as Poland regained control of proceedings to extend their lead to 19-11.
Despite another timeout by the African champions, it was all a matter of when and not if the Poles would be walking away winners on the night.
A bright spark amid the doom for Kenya were the performances of Kenya Pipeline duo Pamela Adhiambo and Veronicah Oluoch, who topped the scoring charts with 15 and 13 points respectively.
Malkia still have one more chance at a first-ever victory at the Olympics — in six editions — when they next play Japan on Saturday morning.
