Despite a late rally in the final two sets of the game, Kenya lost 4-0 (15-2, 15-5, 15-12, 15-10) to Brazil in the opening match of the volleyball Women’s U-23 Championship played in Slovenia on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Dominican Republic also handed Africa other representatives Egypt a 4-2 loss (12-15, 15-6, 15-8, 15-12, 19-7) in the other game played on Sunday.
In all, the South Americans emerged a superior opponent in this contest played under a new scoring system that is specifically under test by the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) in this tournament.
The system includes a 15-point set format (instead of 25) and a best of seven sets to determine the winning team (other than the previous best of five). This implies that a side has to win four sets to be declared winner.
“For someone that is only watching the match it looked good on court. But for the players on the court the new pointing system is very, very fast. And we have to keep our concentration all the game,” Brazil coach Wagner Coppini opined.
Captain Drussyla contributed an impressive haul to Brazil’s point tally to emerge top scorer in this game played at the Sportna Dvorana Tivolo hall in Ljubljana. Meanwhile, Kenya’s left attacker Yvonne Snaida was Kenya’s best scorer with five points.
“I am not sad that we lost our first match here. We did our best in the match that was our first (ever) international game. We should improve our start. This is crucial for winning more points. I think in the next games we will improve,” Kenya captain Shyrine Jepkemboi stressed in his post-match comments.
Brazil took command of the game from the word go, opting to pile a pressure on Kenya’s back court marshalled by Joan Ng’eywo and Doreen Marani.
The tactic paid off, with the favourites ultimately racing into an undisputed 13 point advantage at the end of the opening set.
Coach Catherine Mabwi’s charges seemed to fashion some resolve from somewhere in the proceeding set and pushed the opponents to a 4-4 tie in the opening period.
However, the Kenyan team wasn’t consistent enough and the reigning champions capitalised fully to rake up a 15-5 advantage.
Kenya had their best moments in the third set where the scores stood at 10-10 at some point but again failed in rallying on to pick atleast a set.