Egypt beat Rwanda in the semi-final of 14th African Nations Volleyball Championship
The 14th African Nations Junior Men’s Championship is having an amazing run in Libya this week. The search for the new African champion is on till Sunday, 10th October, 2010. The teams from Egypt, Rwanda, Tunisia and Morocco survived
the hard battles and reached semi-final stage. The semi-finals were held on Wednesday, 6th October, 2010 in the city of Misurata, Libya.
In the first semi-final Tunisia clashed with Morocco and battled out an amazing fight. Tunes enjoyed a hard-earned victory over Morocco in a five set thrilling combat. The second semi-final brought championship’s favourite team Egypt and Rwanda in the court.
The Pharaohs worked really hard and stole victory from Rwanda by posting a score of 3-1 (25-27, 28-26, 26-24, and 25-19). The victory enabled Egypt to play in the final of this championship against Tunisia.
Rwanda opened the first set as the better side; they broke Egypt’s strong defence and scored early points. The poised shots and good blocking helped Rwanda to dominate Egypt. The un-forced ball-handling errors caused trouble for Egypt but slowly they controlled
their movement and threw the ball in Rwandan court. Egypt narrowed the gap of points but couldn’t achieve success in crossing Rwanda’s score. Eventually Rwanda hit powerful aces and put an end to first set with 27-25. Placide Sibomaya and Vincent Dusabimana
of Rwanda played the vital role in bringing success for their team.
The head coach of Egypt, Mohamed El Lakany was upset with the loss of first set. Moreover, one of the Egyptian players received a yellow card in the first set. The coach instructed the team to stay on the right course and to avoid illegal shots. Egyptian
team entered the second set with a new determination to win the set but the other side was highly motivated after one-set victory in hand. Egypt faced great trouble to break their rhythm.
Egypt attacked with Mustafa Idress and hit outstanding spikes. The Pharaohs succeeded to gain reputation after the second technical timeout (TTO). Somehow, Rwanda was at very close distance in the points’ run. Egyptian blockers Mohamed Khater and Mohamed
Elakalny developed good timing and saved set point. Rwanda fought bravely but couldn’t stand the killing ace in the last minute of second set. Egypt claimed the set-point and equalled the game-score at 1-1. The second set ended at 28-26 after a close fight.
The loss of second set filled Rwanda’s team with rage and they attacked aggressively in the nest set. Mukunzi and Bonny Mutabazi of Rwanda smashed the ball with a rocket speed. Egyptian side couldn’t penetrate the heavy spikes, while Rwanda took the lead
of four points at 18-14. However, the real disaster started for Rwanda as they hit lost grip on ball and committed ball-reception errors. Egypt targeted the back court area and hit impressive spikes. Slowly but steadily they surpassed Rwanda and took the score
to 26-24. Egypt was more than happy to win the third set with a great effort.
Rwanda was in deep trouble after receiving defeat in two consecutive sets. They played under huge pressure in fourth set. On contrary, Egypt played comfortably and hit confident shots. Mustafa Idress once again proved to be the right player for Egypt for
displaying exceptional game. He hit unstoppable spikes and added more fuel to Rwanda’s injury. Rwandan players lost temper and seemed helpless. They tried too hard but still trailed behind in the run chase. Egypt pulled off fourth set victory with the help
of 25-19 and kicked out Rwanda.
Egypt has the next big challenge in final match against Tunisia, which put their abilities to a real test.
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