Wolves satisfied with finishing 12th at Confederation of African Volleyball Zone VI Games in their first appearance

The team on their arrival from Lusaka

* From seven games played, we lost some games but we were able to beat some national champions as well

* We are on the right track because championships can be won over a period of four years

By Twimepoki Mangani, MANA

Wolves men’s volleyball team are satisfied with their first appearance at the Confederation of African Volleyball (CAVB) Zone VI Games in which they finished 12th out of 18 teams.

The senior CAVB Zone VI club championships was played at the Olympic Youth Development Centre (OYDC) in Lusaka, Zambia from December 14-21 and Wolves coach, Sakurai Mbanda said they were satisfied with how the men’s team faired during the Championship — concluding that it’s been a successfully tournament.

“This was our first year competing in this tournament and our target was not to be last,” he said. “From seven games played, we lost some games but we were able to beat some national champions as well.

“We are on the right track because championships can be won over a period of four years,” he said.

Mbanda highlighted that one of their weaknesses was lack of height and hopes the squad will be beefed up to address the problem.

“It’s been an eye opener for the boys. After studying their opponents’ style of play, we managed to use their systems to defeat champions from Lesotho and Zimbabwe and for the games lost, we were able to push the games to the wire,” he said.

The men team finished as number 12 out of 18 teams from five teams in Pool C. Among their games, they lost to Police VI from Botswana 3-1, but beat Redskins from Lesotho 3-1 and later won against Naba from Zimbabwe 3-0.

Mbanda said the ladies Wolves team struggled throughout the tournament but gave absolute assurance that they will improve in the upcoming tournaments.

The ladies team emerged 4th in their pool with three points from the games played in which they lost to BDF VI from Botswana 3-1 then beat Harare city 3-1 and lost Green Buffalo from Zambia 3-0.

In the final standings Academica of Maputo from Mozambique were the winners in the women’s catergory with Police VI from Botswana as runners-up followed by Kamplits from South African and Prison Leopards from Zambia.

For the men, Green Buffaloes from Zambia won gold, Academica of Maputo from Mozambique got silver, University of Zimbabwe Wolves from Zimbabwe was third while Prison Leopards from Zambia became fourth.