Port Autonome de Douala, ended it’s unbeaten run at the quarterfinals of the 47th CAVB Men’s Club Championship, as Egypt’s Petrojet Sporting Club brought the impressive unbeaten run to a halt with a 3-1 victory that, in truth, reflected the fine margins that tend to separate good sides from great ones at this level.
The scoreline, 25-23, 18-25, 25-14 and 25-23, told a story of a match that swung and shifted before finally settling in Petrojet’s favour. Petrojet, a club with deep resources and an equally deep familiarity with how to win African continental matches, had the patience and the quality to take it when it mattered.
The first set was as tight as volleyball gets, 25-23 to the Egyptians, and those two-point margins have a funny way of shaping everything that follows. Port Autonome responded well to win the second, but the third belonged entirely to Petrojet, who moved through it with a composure that left little room for a comeback. The fourth set followed a similar pattern to the first, close for long stretches before the Egyptian side edged clear at the finish.
For Donald Beyegue and his squad, there will be real disappointment. They came to Kigali and performed admirably through nine days of competition, winning every match up to this point and representing Cameroon with genuine distinction. Falling at the last eight is not the outcome they were working towards, but a quarterfinal exit at a continental championship is not a result that should diminish what they built here.
They will now compete in the playoff rounds for fifth to eighth place, beginning on the 1st of May. It is a chance to finish the tournament strongly, to give the coaching staff more competitive time with the group, and to leave Rwanda with something tangible beyond the round they were knocked out in.
Elsewhere on the same day, the other two Cameroonian clubs at the tournament, Cameroon Sports Volleyball and Litto Team, will meet each other in match number 96 at the Petit Stade de Kigali at six o’clock in the evening, local time. They are playing for classification positions 17 and 18, and while neither side will pretend it is the competition they hoped to be involved in at this stage, a match between two clubs from the same country always carries its own edge, its own quiet pride.
Kigali has 2 days left to run. The quarterfinal stage has done its job of sorting the field, and the path to the final is now considerably clearer. For Cameroon, the story from here belongs to Port Autonome, and how they choose to respond when the stakes are lower, but the character required is very much the same.
