Rwanda lose second ranking match, play Morocco today

Classification 17-20
Yesterday

Estonia       3-0      Rwanda
Morocco      1-3      Venezuela

Today
Rwanda           vs     Morocco
Estonia     vs     Venezuela

Rwanda lost their second classification match against Estonia 3-0 (25-12, 27-25, and 25-13) at the ongoing FIVB Men’s U21 World Championships yesterday in Izmir, Turkey.

Fresh from registering the country’s first ever win at the world level against Venezuela a day before, Paul Bitok’s side lost the first set against their European rivals 25-12, but improved in the second set which they also lost narrowly 27-25, before Estonia dominated the third set 25-12.

Rwanda’s major weakness at these world champions has been in reception and defense, which has cost the debutants valuable points despite matching their better prepared opponents.

Rwanda will play the last ranking match against Morocco today and Estonia will meet with Venezuela. It will be the second time Rwanda meet Morocco this year following their clash in African Championships in Egypt where Rwanda won 3-1 to take third position.

Ahead of the Morocco game, coach Bitok said, “We need to give everything in the last game, we will try to minimise the mistakes and I think we will do better and achieve our best results.”

After winning against Venezuela Bitok noted, “First, I would like to congratulate my players. They fought really hard. This match was very difficult for us.”

“As a coach I am very happy. We have learned a lot from the previous matches and I hope it will help the players,” he stated.

“We played against big teams. My objective was to win at least one match and now we are very happy. I hope this self confidence lead us to win another match.”

By Peter Kamasa,The New Times

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