11th All-Africa Games - Seychelles women’s volleyball team garner third successive win |09 September 2015

Seychelles women’s volleyball team rebounded back from a set behind to win a thrilling 3-1 (24-26, 25-14, 25-14, 25-17) victory over Ghana in pool A at the ongoing 11th All-Africa Games in Congo Brazzaville.

After Ghana won the first set, the Seychelles team became more motivated and succeeded to control the match till the end. They also used the service as a weapon as they had 7/2 advantage in ace services, although Ghana had 9/6 in blocking.

Marielle Bonne led the Seychelles scorers with 18 points followed by Petrina Victor with 13. Martha Pavon led the losers with 11 points. Seychelles improved their win-loss ratio to 3-0, while Ghana dropped to 1-2.

Seychelles won their opening match 3-2 (25-17, 25-19, 23-25, 22-25, 18-16) against Senegal, before beating Botswana 3-1 (25-16, 25-21, 21-25, 25-23) with the competition’s top scorer Marielle Bonne shining in both games with 29 and 19 points.

Seychelles currently lie second in group A behind Egypt with both sides unbeaten after three games. Seychelles are followed by Senegal, Ghana, Botswana and hosts Congo Brazzaville from third to sixth respectively.

Meanwhile, the Seychelles men’s volleyball team have been having a much tougher time after losing their opening games. They lost their first on a 2-3 (21-25, 25-22, 25-18, 23-25, 12-15) score against Cape Verde Islands, before losing heavily to Algeria on a 0-3 (16-25, 20-25, 16-25) score. The team were due to play their third match against Rwanda last night.

In boxing Seychellois Alva Botsoie caused an upset as he stopped Namibia’s Immanuel Shapaka who was a medal favourite in the welterweight category.

Seychelles has so far won two bronze medals at the Games through swimmer Alexus Laird (50m backstroke) and the badminton team made up of Juliette Ah-Wan, Cynthia Course, Alisen Camille, Steve Malcouzane, Georgie Cupidon and Kervin Ghislain

S. N.