Atuka, Too feted after Pipeline finish second at continental tourney
Kenya Pipeline duo Trizah Atuka and Naomi Too were feted with the Best Middle Blocker and Best Opposite Player awards respectively in the just ended CAVB Womens Volleyball Club Championships in Tunisia where the former Kenya champions came runners-up.
Egyptian giants Zamalek won the continental duel 3-1 (25-22/18-25//25-15/25-17) on Monday night in an electric fixture played at the Hall Nabeul Indoor Arena. Pipeline under Coach Paul Gitau are six times winners and last won the title in 2019.
Against Zamalek, they gave a good shift but ultimately the aggression and experience of the North Africans held sway across three sets.
The first set was mighty close with Zamalek Volleyball Club also known as the “Whites” only surviving a late onslaught by the Kenyans by a whisker. Kenya’s blocking was solid in the second set but their service was a tad slow which brought the Egyptian attackers the freedom to come to the net more often. Giza City based Zamalek made their own piece of history after clinching their first ever silverware in the Championships.
On their way to the finals, the Kenyan team who prior to the tournament had a one week residential training in Mombasa County, won four straight games all the way to the semi-finals stage. In the opening encounter against KPC beat Chief of Naval from Nigeria 3-1 (25-12/21-25/25-13/27-25) in an epic encounter before emerging victorious again in the Round of 16 contest against MCA of Algeria in another 3-1 result of (25-21/20-25/25-18/25-21).
The competition stepped up a notch with the Oil team having to dig deeper. The Quarter Finals saw Pipeline defeat Nyong of Cameroon (25-10/25-13/25-21) in what seemed fairly straight forward for Gitau’s charges. The semis on the other hand proved a proper cracker as KPC had to work harder to dislodge home favorites CFC 3-2 (18-25/27-25/25-23/23-25/15-9).
It was by far the most difficult match the Kenyan Ladies had undertaken in this year’s competition. For most of the part it was all or nothing in a seesaw battle for points. The real duel was between the outside attackers and blockers which spiced the game in the arena.
