Cameroon Men’s volleyball team defeats Kenya in semi-final of 2011 All Africa Games
The Cameroon Men’s volleyball team had a match with the Kenyans on September 6th in Maputo, Mozambique. The contest between the two teams was the semi-final of the 2011 All Africa Games. The venue of the competition was the Maxaquene Hall.
Both teams put in their sweat and blood in the competition that took the match to five long and thrilling sets that ended at the following final set scores: 25-22, 23-25, 25-17, 22-25 and 15-8.
Both teams started off the opening set with promise and the match remained balanced for most part of the frame. However, Cameroon was able to pull free of the tie in the end and bag a win. Kenya responded by coming out strong in the second set and equalising
the match by bagging the frame. The third set was dominated by Cameroon and they were able to secure a win by a significant margin. Kenya did not give up and battled hard in the fourth set to take the match to a decisive fifth that ended on the terms of the
Cameroon team.
Despite the fact that the two teams were almost neck to neck in the opening set, the difference was made by the Cameroon players, Nathan Wounembaina and Ahmed Mbutgam, that made the attack of the Cameroon team a force to reckon with. Wounembaina was able
to rain down heavy kills on the Kenyans as he was repeatedly passed on well set balls by Mbutgam which got Cameroon the 25-22 win.
The attack of the Cameroon side remained strong in the second set but Kenya was able to step up their defence by improving their blocking. Once the Kenyans had some control over the game, they were able to attack better by using the confidence generated
from a better performance. Specifically, the Kenyan player Philip Maiyo was able to make significant contributions to the score board to get Kenya a 25-23 win.
The third set saw Cameroon taking the lead at the second technical time out at 16-9 but Kenya was able to close in the gap. However, Cameroon managed to increase the difference and head toward a win at 25-17.
The fourth set saw some changes being made to the Kenyan team that got the middle blockers more active. The strategy worked and Kenya took the match to a decisive fifth set with a 25-22 win.
The attackers from Cameroon worked their magic again in the fifth set and led their team smoothly towards a final set win at 15-8.
The match was bestowed with the honour of being viewed by the president of CAVB, Dr Amr Elwani, along with other prominent officials of CAVB as well as COJA.
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