Paris Olympics: Malkia Strikers pinpoint weaknesses after defeat against Brazil

Kenya women's volleyball team, the Malkia Strikers, launched their Paris 2024 Olympic Games campaign on a losing note on Monday, going down 3-0 (25-14, 25-13, 25-12) to Brazil in their opening Group B match.

The 10-time African champions could not match the impressive reception and reaction from the two-time Olympic gold medalists.

Despite the defeat, head coach Japheth Munala drew many positives from the match ahead of their second fixture against the world's third-ranked nation, Poland, on Wednesday.

"We have improved in reception. This has been Kenya's weakness; we received many balls,” head coach Munala said after the encounter.

"The libero Agripina Kundu and our left players Veronica Adhiambo and Leonida Kasaya received a lot of balls, and also Juliana Namutira when she came in.

"What let us down was finishing off the net defense. We will now go back and study Poland on video and then head to training to counter their strengths," Munala told Nation Sport.

Kenya's captain Triza Atuka was also gracious in defeat, picking up some key lessons.

"We had our good moments and are happy that we have improved on our reception, which is usually an issue whenever we come for these championships. Brazil were good in defense, especially blocking and back-court defense.

Paris Olympics: False start for Malkia Strikers as Brazil brush off African champions

"We will work on our side-out during training and see how we can improve. Our next opponents, Poland, are a strong team, and having played Brazil today is an eye-opener because most of the players realize that if we can try against Brazil, we can do better against Poland.

"The opening match is always difficult, but now we know what to plan on to approach the next match."

Kenya will meet Poland on Wednesday before wrapping up their campaign in the preliminary round against 1964 Tokyo and 1976 Munich Olympic gold medalists Japan on Sunday 3 August.

The two highest-ranked teams from the three pools at the Summer Games and the best two third-placed teams will advance to the quarterfinals.

This is the fourth time Malkia Strikers are participating in the Olympics, having finished 12th in the 2000 Sydney, 2004 Athens, and 2020 Tokyo Olympics.