47th African Men’s Volleyball Champions League : Day Four: A Giant Strides On, Two Others Falter

PAD Maintain Flawless Run as Litto and Cameroon Sports Face the End

Sunday brought a mixture of pride and pain for Cameroon’s volleyball community, with the fourth round of group matches closely watched from home, confirming what had been slowly taking shape throughout the week.

Port Autonome de Douala required no great drama on this occasion. Kalibi Sporting Club of Ghana were the opposition in Pool D, and Beyegue’s side dealt with them methodically, winning 3-0 with sets of 25-13, 25-15 and 25-14. Four wins from four. A perfect record, a Pool D standing that placed them firmly in control of their own destiny, and a level of performance that had drawn admiring glances from observers at the Petit Stade all week. There was a quiet confidence to how this team went about their work, and it was difficult not to appreciate it.

Litto Team’s campaign effectively ended on Sunday afternoon. Petrojet of Egypt, another of the continent’s formidable sides, were simply too composed and too powerful. Basile Dambe and his teammates showed willing throughout, but effort without the clinical finishing to back it up produces only so much. The final score was 0-3, with sets of 12-25, 17-25 and 24-26 in the third, which was genuinely close. That third set in particular was cruel, because it suggested the margin between the two sides was narrower than the scoreline implied. It was not enough.

Cameroon Sports faced Equity Bank VC of Kenya and discovered, as so many sides have before them, that experience and organisation are qualities that youth and enthusiasm cannot always overcome. The Cameroonian club were competitive enough in patches, winning the third set 25-20 to show they had not capitulated mentally. But Kenya’s Equity Bank were the steadier side across the full match, running out 3-1 winners. Three defeats from four outings left Cameroon Sports with little to play for but pride heading into Monday.