Volleyball: FIVB Men’s World Championship |05 March 2014

Seychelles off to winning start

The Seychelles men’s team got off to a winning start in the 2014 Men’s World Championships pool V African qualifiers by beating Senegal.

On the opening day of the qualifiers on Monday at the Palais des Sports Hall in Tunis, Tunisia, coach François Ally’s team recorded a 3-1 win against the more-experienced Senegal to start their campaign on the right foot.

Despite missing former professional and captain Ian Furneau, the Seychelles team, according to reports from Tunisia, used quick attacks through position three to claim a 3-1 (25-16, 18-25, 25-22, 25-19) victory against Senegal in the opening match of the five-nation qualifiers.

The report added that Seychelles started the first set aggressively through strong service that put the Senegalese under pressure. Senegal came back strongly in the second set after they improved their defence and blocking to win the set and pull level at 1-1.

Seychelles regained their starting rhythm to win both the third and fourth sets and secure a first victory.

Today, the Seychelles team will meet favourites and hosts Tunisia who also won their opening match on Monday on a 3-0 (25-16, 25-13, 25-12) score against Niger.

In an interview posted on the Confederation of African Volleyball (CAVB) website prior to Monday’s match, coach Ally was quoted as saying:

“The team are ready to compete after two weeks’ preparation in Mauritius. We played six matches there among them three against the Mauritian national team before coming back home for two more weeks of preparation. We are coming here to show good volleyball and qualify among the more experienced teams.”

Only the group winners will qualify for the World Championship in Poland from August 30 to September 21. Cameroon and Egypt have already taken the other two African tickets to the worlds.

G. G.