Oduor calls on Prisons to regroup ahead of KVF playoffs

Former Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) men’s league champions Prisons Kenya ended the regular league action with a straight-sets defeat in the hands of arch-rivals General Service Unit (GSU) on Sunday.

 Assistant coach Ibrahim Oduor has attributed the final result mostly to loss of confidence on the part of his charges, something he says affected all other aspects of their game but was quick to laud them for the improvement in performance compared to previous matches.

GSU make light work of Prisons as KVF men's regular league concludes

The top four teams after the regular season, Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) who lead the standings at 40 points, similar to GSU but with a better set ratio, the warders and debutants Trailblazers head to the playoff where the winner will be crowned champion.

 “We started well and really gave a good account of ourselves in the first set. We committed mistakes in service and reception in the tail end of the first set and lost the first set by a close 25-22 outcome. The players lost their confidence after that result and our attack and defense especially our blocks were greatly affected. This gave GSU the chance to punish us and we could not recover in the second and third sets,” offered Oduor.

 While both KPA and GSU have shown the impetus to stamp their authority this season, losing only once in the regular season, the warders lost thrice, including this weekend’s defeat to the holders to finish third tied on 37 points with Trailblazers who also lost thrice as well.

 “The loss to GSU will not affect our performance in the upcoming playoffs. It has, however, given us a better view of what the team needs to work on. The team has greatly improved. Our performance in the last two legs goes to show that the team can compete with the best in the league.

Previously we lost to Kenya Forest Service (KFS) something had never happened. We also lost a set to Equity which exposed a lot of weaknesses. Playing against GSU in the last match has helped us gauge our improvements and now we train our guns on the three teams in the playoffs as we target the title,” added Oduor.

GSU are looking to defend the title with victory handing them a fifth consecutive title while the warders look to get back to winning ways and out a stop to GSU’s dominance. KPA are here to spoil the party for both as coach Sammy Mulinge loss to hand the dockers their maiden league title.