Bulgaria tear through error prone Malkia

Malkia Strikers slumped to their second successive defeat in Group 2 of the FIVB World Grand Prix 2016 to Bulgaria in Tucuman, Argentina on Sunday.

Just like the hosts Argentina, Bulgaria made short work of the national women’s volleyball team in straight sets (25-17, 25-17, 25-9) in a match that lasted one hour eight minutes.

Violet Makuto together with captain Mercy Moim earned eight points each for Malkia but Bulgaria’s outside hitter Emiliya Nikolova controlled the game to widen the win.

Bulgaria is leading Pool A2 and has clearly been the best team in Tucuman since the tourney kicked-off.

Head Coach David Lung’aho was discontented with the uninspiring defeat as the nine time champions folded without much of a fight.

“Bulgaria deserved the triumph. On our side we won’t forgive ourselves for losing this way, we didn’t play well. We will keep fighting to get the win tomorrow.” He told Citizen Digital.

Malkia captain Mercy Moim blamed the defeat on their own mistakes.

“I want to congratulate team Bulgaria, they have played better. We didn’t do it well, we lost concentration and made a lot of mistakes. I hope we can improve for tomorrow.” She said.

Kenya committed several errors and allowed the European team to simply end the game with a comfortable victory 25-9 in the third set.

In the other PoolA2 match Dominican Republic earned a  first victory in the 2016 FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix, 3-2 (22-25, 25-16, 25-15, 23-25, 16-14) outshining hosts Argentina.

The Dominican captain scored 25 points and completed a magical night in Tucuman.

Bulgaria won both matches against Kenya at major tournaments, with both matches being played at the 2014 World Grand Prix, 3-2, 3-1.

Kenya are yet to get victory over European opposition at a major tournament, after suffering 25 defeats.

Bulgaria has won all of their four matches against African sides at major events, all in 2014, at the World Grand Prix and the World Championships.

Kenya have only once lost successive matches in the World Grand Prix – two in a row in 2014 (Croatia, Bulgaria).

Kenya will meet Dominican Republic for their last PoolA2 match before travelling to Poland for other remaining matches.