Zambia volleyball national team eliminated from Botswana tournament
By Cecilia Nayame
THE Zambia Volleyball Women national team are out of the medal bracket following the team’s poor performance at the Ditsala International Volleyball Cup Championship in Botswana.
Team Zambia only managed to record one win out of three games played on day one of the tournament.
The Arnold Simulezi tutored side lost 1-2 to Bring It Progress (BIP) of United States (US) in the first match of the tournament last Friday and went on to lose 0-3 to another US team, Historically Black College University in their second match on the same day.
The team wrapped it up with another 0-3 loss to BIP in the third match of the tournament.
The Annie Kalaba captained side rejuvenated themselves on the third day of the tournament, thrashing Lesotho 3-0 to record their first win of the tournament.
By press time, team Zambia was scheduled to face Botswana in their last match of the tournament later in the afternoon.
Simulezi said a few errors cost the team in the three matches they lost to the American teams.
He said his side had learned a lot from the tournament.
“We have known the Americans now, they almost gave us the same kind of play but what cost us mostly especially in the matches we lost, was defense and attacking positions,” Simulezi said.
He urged the team to work hard in future.
“Our start was good in all the games. We could take the lead but again at a certain point players were becoming complacent and ended up giving away the leads…otherwise, lessons picked and we are looking forward to improving on our performance in future,” he said.