Cameroonians maul Nairobi Water in Africa Club Championship
What you need to know:
- The semi-finals will be played on Saturday with the final set for Sunday.
- The defeat ended the Kenyan side’s chances of advancing to the last four of the competition.
National women’s handball champions Nairobi Water lost 35-15 to Cameroonian side FAP Yaoundé in the quarterfinals of the Africa Club Championship on Thursday night at the Palais des Sports in Ouagadougou.
The defeat ended the Kenyan side’s chances of advancing to the last four of the competition. The team will now look to finish between positions 5-8. The Jack Ochieng-led side went into the match on the back of three previous losses against the West Africans.
Despite a good start from the three-time national champions, FAP eventually hit the ground running to take a 18-7 lead at the break as the Nairobi Water defence once again struggled to contain attacks.
The second half was a tactical contest between the teams, with Nairobi Water choosing to stay deep and occasionally launching counter attacks.
Their defence was however unlocked by the Cameroonians who found the back of the net 17 times to cruise into the last four for their second year in running.
HIGHEST SCORER
Forward Brenda Ariviza was Nairobi Water’s highest scorer, notching eight goals while Gladys Chilo and Elizabeth Wanjiru scored three goals apiece. Ochieng blamed the defeat on concentration lapses but was nonetheless pleased by his team’s fighting spirit.
“We needed to cut down of the number of mistakes and that is what proved to be our undoing. We were brilliant in going forward but left our defence exposed and we got punished,” Ochieng said yesterday. Nairobi Water were due to play Benin’s ASPAC last night.
In other quarterfinal matches, champions Primero from Angola beat Burundi’s AS Onea 37-10 while Cameroon’s TKC won 24-15 against Mikishi of Cote d’Ivoire and Asel of Democratic Republic of Congo beat ASPAC 45-23.
The semi-finals will be played on Saturday with the final set for Sunday.
