Kenya Prisons on Saturday beat Uganda’s Nemostars 3-0 in their final match of the men’s African Volleyball Club championship played at the Al Ahly Sports Hall in Cairo, Egypt.
The result left Prisons second in Pool A, and they will have to wait for the outcome of the match between Espoire of Congo and defending champions Al Ahly (scheduled for 10pm Saturday) to find out whether or not they proceed to the tournament’s quarterfinals.
This was Prisons fourth win of the competition, as they had already fended off Redskins of Lesotho, Congo’s Espoire and Police of Cote d’Ivoire in their opening group matches. They had however lost 3-0 to defending champions Al Ahly in their third match on Thursday.
Just like Al Ahly, Nemostars appeared to be Prisons’ toughest opponents yet, as they constantly pushed them to the wall with their quick spikes and accurate service.
In the nail-biting encounter played before a handful of fans, the warders strung a narrow 25-22 win in the first set, and almost capitulated in the second set where Nemostars led by the second technical time out.
A series of relentless attacks and good blocking however saw them recover quickly to wind up the second set 25-22.
They were a lot more comfortable in the last set as they attacked with more confidence and held onto the lead throughout the match. They took only 28 minutes to wrap it up with a 25-18 victory.
The result left Prisons standing second in Pool A behind defending champions Al Ahly, and on equal points with Congo’s Espoire, who were scheduled to play Al Aly in their final group match at 10pm.
Should Espoire lose their battle against the multiple champions, Prisons will qualify for the quarterfinals as Pool A’s runners up, joining GSU who already made it that far after beating Kampala Amateurs on Friday.
GSU, who are Kenya’s other representatives in the competition, were scheduled to play hosts Elguesh in their final group match starting 7pm on Saturday.