Wafalme Stars go down fighting against silver medalists Cameroon

In their opening fixture at the 2023 men's African Nations Championship in Cairo, Egypt, Wafalme Stars lost 3-1 (25-22, 25-20, 24-26, 25-17) to highly-ranked Cameroon. 

The Gideon Tarus-led side went into the fixture as underdogs as they faced not only the African silver medalists from the 2021 edition but also a side that is ranked 29th globally, 43 places ahead of the Kenyan team. 

As expected, the Indomitable Lions, got off to a good start, going ahead 5-2 and the difference was extended further to 10-6before Tarus' charges rallied from behind to level the score at 11-11. 

A few errors from the Kenya side saw the Cameroonians pull away to a 16-12 lead forcing the home boys into a timeout to try and course-correct. 

Wafalme found themselves trailing 18-13 but went on a four-point scoring streak to come to within two points of the opponent at 19-17 as "Kenya kipenzi chetu" tunes belted from the stands rallying the team on. 

Another lapse in concentration saw the Indomitable Lions go 22-19 before a service error handed Cameroon the set at 25-22. 

The second set was closely contested in the initial stages with Kenya taking the lead at 6-4 before Cameroon equalised at 7-7 and go on a five-point rally to lead 11-7, a timeout for Kenya at 10-7 doing little to change the trajectory of the match. 

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The difference was back to two at 14-12 but that was the closest Kenya came to challenging the 2021 finalists as the lead was back to 18-14 soon after before the West Africans took the set 25-20 to lead 2-0. 

Kenya led the third set from early on, keeping a two-point cushion between them and the Malloum Abbas-coached side. Keen to make it a straight-sets victory, Cameroon came back to level the scores at 10 points. 

Tarus' charges kept the fight, minimising errors in the ensuing rally to go ahead 16-14 and again 19-16. Their advantage was, however, short-lived as the opponent was back again to level matters at 20-20 and go ahead 23-21. The fight in Wafalme was bigger as they kept going for a 26-24 hugely celebrated set.

Cameroon ensured they led early in the fourth set, going 6-3 ahead and further at 10-5 and 12-6, a dent that Kenya was unable to recover from as, despite trying hard, as they went down 25-17. 

Abiud Chirchir was Kenya's top point scorer with 13 as Yvan Kody led with 22 points for Indomitable Lions.