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Malkia Strikers suffer third loss in world cup


Kenya lost her third successive match at the ongoing FIVB women’s world cup here in Japan, going down to a 0-3 (16-25, 21-25 and 21-25) loss to unbeaten Russia at the Yoyogi National Stadium’s first gymnasium on Monday afternoon.

Kenya was impressive for some spells in this match, but was always short of sustaining a continous attack against the world’s second placed team.

“Russia is a strong team. Our mission here is to play well and improve. We showed character in defeat today and we hope to win in the next matches,” Kenya’s coach David Lung’aho said after the match.

Brackides Agala and Mercy Moim led Kenya’s scoring charts with 16 and 12 points respectively, in comparison to Tatiana Kosheleva and Natalia Malykh who managed 16 and 10.

Russia utilised a good attack technique that produced a balanced distribution of hits from its players.

POOR DEFENCE

The Kenyans had some good offence surge in the first set, but their defence could not contain the strong spikes. Russia sealed the first set win 25-16.

Kenya opened the second set with a 4-1 lead but Russia were quick to react and tied the game at 4-all.

Kenya kept up with the Russian tempo in some moments in the set but could not cope up with the stronger and taller Russian attackers in the final plays. Russia still surfaced on top 25-21.

“We used new players who have not played after the first set, but I also used the same starters because they always have to be ready. Kosheleva has not played serve and receive recently, so I wanted her to do it so she can play better,” Russia coach Marichev Yury explained

In the third set, Kenya emerged with the lead of 8-5 and 16-14 in both technical timeouts, but Russia mounted a wall in the final plays that secured the set and match victory 25-21.