Cameroon Coach Akono Confident Against Kenya

Cameroon’s women national volleyball national team head coach Jean Rene Akono is confident that his team will do well in their Tuesday 7 January Tokyo 2020 Olympics qualifier against Kenya, to be played at the Palais Polyvalent des Sports (Paposy) Arena in Yaounde.

The Africa Champions will be out to avenge their 3-1 loss to Kenya in the August 2019 All Africa Games tournament that was held in Morocco.

Cameroon has so far maintained a perfect record, winning two consecutive matches against Nigeria and Botswana without dropping a set.

Although Kenya maybe the favourites on paper, Akono has already devised a plan to deal with the threat posed by the African volleyball giants despite having to miss two of her dependable players- Moma Bassoko and libero Raissa Nasser.

“We have won and lost to Kenya before even with Moma and Raissa on the court. Volleyball is a team sport so we can’t say the absence of a few individuals will affect us. Even Kenya have key players (Triza Atuka and Janet Wanja) missing so we can’t use that as an excuse,” Akono was quoted by Daily Nation.

“Our main concern is finishing the game. We have been playing very well against Kenya before, but when we get to 22 we just can’t finish the game. We hope for better tomorrow,” he added.

Cameroon outplayed Nigeria 3-0 (25-12, 25-10, 25-8) Monday night in a win that was inspired by Stephanie Fotso and Ruth Bibinbe as both shared the match-high scoring with 9 points each.

Previously on Monday evening, Kenya had doubled their wins with a 3-0 (25-17, 25-19, 25-18) sweep of Botswana which left the latter winless after two games.

In the other match, Nigeria will take on Botswana in the qualifying tournament that is featuring five battling teams.