Moorosi Tsiane
Lesotho’s three representatives in the 2014 Zone VI Inter-Club Volleyball Championship held in Mozambique from 14-20 December crashed out in the early stage of the annual tournament.
The three were Redskins male and female teams, as well as the Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) female team.
Redskins’ male side were beaten 3-2 by Support Unit of Zimbabwe in the quarterfinal, while their female counterparts also lost 3-1 to Bobcats of Swaziland at the same stage of the showcase. LDF failed to get past the group stage of the regional competition.
A Redskins player, ‘Mabele Masasa, told the Sunday Express on Friday that they were simply unlucky not to go all the way to the final, while poor preparations due to lack of funds, also affected the teams.
“We had very good games from Day One; it was just that we were unlucky in the quarterfinal and lost matches we should have won. We were also playing against very good teams, so all I can say is we did our best,” Masasa told the Sunday Express from Maputo.
However, Masasa is also looking at the positive side of the teams’ participation in the competition, which the Redskins male side won in 2010.
“The experience we gained here will be very helpful to us in future. We are coming back home wiser and with invaluable international experience that can only help us be better players going forward.”
Masasa also lamented the teams’ poor preparations ahead of the tournament, which she said had a huge bearing on their performance.
“Our preparations were not that good, but that is not an excuse for failing to win the championship as we had promised the nation. We lost because the teams we were playing against were better than us, and like I said earlier on, with a little bit of luck, we could have won our respective quarterfinal matches because they were so close.”
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