African Queens collapse to Argentina
Kenya’s women volleyball team meekly lost to Argentina in their fifth match at the ongoing 2015 FIVB World Cup on Thursday at the Yoyogi National Stadium in Tokyo, Japan.
Earlier on, the team’s technical bench had expressed hope of winning the match, but the African champions instead put up a disappointing show, losing 3-0 (25-12, 25-17, 25-20).
The South Americans collected 29 points from a myriad of unforced errors from the Kenyan team.
“Today has been a no show. It’s very disappointing that the squad just switched off. You cannot even explain it,” Kenya coach David Lung’aho said after the match.
On Wednesday night javelin thrower Julius Yego’s remarkable achievement in clinching gold at the IAAF World Championship in Beijing China had lifted the team’s spirit here ahead of the match.
TWEAKED SQUAD
But even with a tweaked squad, Kenya found themselves trailing 0-8 by the first technical time out of the match, and later 1-12 before collapsing 12-25 – their lowest set tally here so far.
The African champions gradually improved in the second and third sets, but still struggled to break the momentum of the opposition.
“No excuses today, we can do match better and we will work on doing just that before our next game,” team captain Brackcides Agala said.
Mercy Moim’s top score of 14 points in the match – for the fourth time in five games was one of the few high points for the Kenyan team.
This was Kenya’s last match in Tokyo. The team now relocates Okayama City, where they will play second round matches against USA, China and Algeria.