Title campaign in Tunisia on as CAVB men's club championship gets underway

Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and Equity Bank are in Tunisia where they will be flying the Kenyan flag at the men's Club Championships set to throw off today.

Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) silver medalists KPA landed in pool C that has Congo's Espoir Volleyball Club INJS of Ivory Coast and Madda University from Ethiopia. 

Equity Bank who got the chance to feature following the withdrawal of champions General Service Unit (GSU) are in pool D that has Port Doula from Cameroon, Nigeria's Customs and Gisagara of Rwanda. 

Coach Sammy Mulinge is hoping to guide his charges to a better performance than what they achieved on their debut last year, finishing in fifth place. 

"We did not get the defending champion or the host in the pool and that is a good thing for us. We will be up against average teams with good levels of volleyball and are regular participants in this championship. 

We can't tell how good they are until we play them.or see them in action but we are taking it one match at a time. We meet Madda in our opening match as we look to have a good start," said Mulinge. 

The tactician has two players who will be making their debut at the continental level. Gregory Kiplimo and Nelson Kipkogei who are doing duty as setter and middle blocker respectively. The tactician is, however, confident they are ready for action. 

"The draws look fair but are definitely tricky. We have to win atleast two matches to progress to the quarter finals. We set our goals to be in the quarters and see what happens after. We have a chance to achieve this," added Mulinge. 

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The fourteen clubs will be competing for the title currently held by hosts Esperance. Each pool will play a round robin format with the top two teams of each qualify for the quarterfinal. 

The competition will continue in a knock out format there after till the final. The third and fourth teams of each pool will play in the same format for the classification matches.

Pool A

Kelibia of Tunisia

FAP of Cameroun

Ahly of Egypt

Pool B

Esperance of Tunisia

Wolaitta of Ethiopia

AS Duanes of Cameroun

Pool C

Kenya Ports Authority

VC Espoir

Injs of Ivory Coast

Madda University of Ethiopia

Pool D

Port Doula of Cameroun

Customs or Nigeria

Equity Bank of Kenya

Gisagara of Rwanda