Malkia Strikers falter in their quest for World championship second round

National women's volleyball team, Malkia Strikers, are out of the ongoing FIVB Women’s World Championships after falling 3-1 to a hard-fighting Puerto Rico. 

The Luizomar de Moura-coached side needed nothing short of a win against the Caribbean Islanders to see their dreams of featuring in the second round that will have 16 teams compete in two pools, come true. 

From the onset of their preparations, and with the groupings released, Malkia Strikers had set their eyes on winning against African champions Cameroon and Puerto Rico who were the lower ranked sides in pool A. 

On Tuesday, the African silver medalist did part of the job, revenging their loss to Cameroon at the African Championships last year with a 3-0 victory that left them pumped up for the match against Puerto Rico. 

They faced off with European and Nations League title holders Italy on Thursday and the performance further strengthened belief that victory against the Islanders was possible. 

In Saturday's match that served off at 5 pm (EAT) Malkia Strikers started the match low in all departments with Veronica Adhiambo the standout player for the Kenyans in the set, and eventually in the match, they went on to lose 15-25. 

The Caribbean Islanders had gone 2-0 up before Kenya could bag her first points to tie the match at 2-2. The Puerto Ricans went on a scoring spree bagging five points for 7-2 and spelling trouble for the nine-time African champions. 

Malkia had dug themselves deep and continued with the downward trajectory, unable to beat Puerto Rico's blocks and conceding easy points on poor coverage at the centre and back courts. 

Moura, smelling blood, called for a timeout with the score reading 6-13 in favour of the opposition and the most audible thing from the TV cameras, on the time out, was the Brazilian emotionally asking Malkia Strikers if they believed in themselves. 

The pep-talk did little to change things as Malki found themselves trailing by eight points at 16-8 and further down ten at 22-12, and 23-13 before losing the set by a similar margin at 25-15. 

The second set started with the team's top scorer so far, Sharon Chepchumba snapping out of whatever had her play an entire set without a point to gift her side the opener. 

Her second attack went out, gifting Puerto Rico their first point of the set while Mercy Moim's kill taking Kenya ahead for the first time at 2-1. Moura's charges held on to the lead at 6-3 and 7-4 but allowed the opposition back to see the match tied at ten points. 

Puerto Rico assumed lead at 11-10 and the one-point advantage remained until 14 points when Malkia Strikers went on a spree if their own scoring five to lead 18-14 and sent a signal that this was their set to win. 

The Kenyans attained their biggest lead at 21-15, which was maintained at 23-17 and 24-18 and in the winning score of 25-19 to level the sets. 

The third set was a see-saw, both sides tied or separated by a single point before Kenya took a 9-6 lead. They could, however, hold on as Puerto Rico mounted a challenge, scoring five to lead 11-9. 

The match was, again, tied at 11 points and Kenya played catch-up from then on, trailing by a single point before Puerto Rico made it three at 16-15 and all he'll broke loose. 

Six points later for the José Mieles' led Puerto Rico and Malkia Strikers showed some semblance of life making it 22-16. However, the hole they had dug themselves into was too deep to crawl out and they lost the set by seven points at 25-17. 

It was another slow start for Malkia Strikers, despite taking the first set, as they found themselves trailing 7-1 before they could get their second point of the set. 

It was a painful experience for the Kenyan hopefuls who had held on to hope that the long awaited historical moment was nigh as they watched the team that had comfortably beaten Puerto Rico in the second set crumble in all-important fourth set. 

The difference was as high as ten points at 13-3, 14-4,16-6 and there was clearly no comeback path for the Kenyan side that had set a target of getting to the second round of the competition. 

Their efforts in the second part of the set, after the 16 point mark did little to change the fate as Puerto Rico booked a place in the second round with a 25-20 victory of the set.