Rio-bound Argentina crush Malkia in friendly tie

Rio-bound Argentina crush Malkia in friendly tie

Hosts Argentina crushed Malkia Strikers 4-1 in a five-set friendly clash in Buenos Aires on Wednesday evening.

Argentina breezed through the opening four sets 25-17, 25-18, 25-18 and 25-23 before the national women’s volleyball team nabbed the consolation fifth in 23-25.

The match lasted 1 hour, 37 minutes where captain Mercy Moim garnered the highest points for Kenya with 13, Noel Murambi had 12 while Evelyn Makuto and Violet Makuto had 10 each.

The match is to help the team in preparations ahead of FIVB World Grand Prix that serves-off on June 3.

Coach David Lungaho said the weather conditions at the Argentina capital affected his side that will travel to Tucuman after their Buenos Aires camp ends.

“We have played against Argentina in a friendly match which was our first training here and to me the players played well, because it is just our first match since we came here. It is very cold, we lost 4-1 to Argentina but pulling up a set and scoring very high in the last set improves a point.

“We are going to play against them again on Saturday and I hope we get better results before we move to Tucuman. So far so good and I think our stay here has been nice. The weather is cold but we are not giving up and I want to believe this training and the game we are going to play Argentina who have invited us will go along way in helping us to improve our performance.”

The team will undergo high intensity training followed by warm-ups for a week before embarking on the Group 2 of the FIVB circuit- tournament in Tucuman next month.

Kenya landed in Buenos Aires on Tuesday morning after an 8 hour, 15 minutes flight from Miami USA where they had connected from San Juan, Puerto Rico where they lost the last chance to play at the Rio 2016 Olympics after losing to Colombia and the hosts last week.

“This is a good opportunity to play against one of the top teams in the world and we hope this will help our players recover well,” team manager, Martin Kimondo said.

Argentina have qualified for the Olympic where they will be making their first appearance as the South American champions. Kenya is being hosted by the Argentine Volleyball Federation for four days before they fly out to Tucuman this weekend.

Kenya will play against hosts Argentina, Bulgaria and Dominican Republic in the first round of the FIVB Group 2 World Grand Prix.

Match Schedule
Tucuman
June 4: Kenya vs Argentina/ Dominican Republic vs Bulgaria
June 5: Kenya vs Bulgaria/Dominican Republic vs Argentina
June 5: Dominican Republic vs Kenya/Argentina vs Bulgaria
Poland
June 10: Kenya vs Puerto Rico/ Poland vs Argentina
June 11: Kenya vs Poland/Argentina vs Puerto Rico

Tags:

David Lung'aho argentina Malkia Strikers Mercy Moim Women's Volleyball

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