Cameroon's Ruth Diboue (4) and Juliette Asta Gamkoua defend against Kazakhstan captain Yelena Pavlova.
Cameroon
vs
Kazakhstan
0
-
3
Kobe, Japan, November 4, 2006 -- Kazakhstan earned their first win at the World Championships as they faced off against Cameroon, another side with an 0-3 record in Pool C.
The Kazaks encountered little resistance as they polished off their African opponents 25-20, 25-13, 25-12.
The first set was hardly a classic with both teams failing to get to grips with their game.
cameroon coach Peter Nonnenbroich replaced setter Juliette Asta Gamkoua with Kazakhstan leading 12-9 and this improved his team's organization, but Kazakhstan also started to play better volleyball and moved out to an 18-11 lead.
Kazakhstan earned setpoint when Cameroon's Marguerite Messina Ondoua placed a spike wide, and their captain, Yelena Pavlova, sealed the set with a clever little push over the net.
Things didn't get much better for Cameroon in the second set.
Nonnenbroich called a timeout at 0-4 and his players struggled to find any kind of rhythm to pressure the Kazaks.
Kazakhstan may have been slow on the uptake, but they didn't have to do much to score.
Major spikes were generally absent, with many points being won on defensive errors.
Cameroon setter Asta Gamouka had problems with consistency and the Cameroonians also struggled defensively.
The defensive problems were highlighted when they lost the second set on a weak serve by Kazakhstan's Olga Grushko that they were unable to return.
Cameroon's woes continued into the third set as errors made life easy for Kazakhstan, who led 8-2 at the first technical timeout.
Cameroon had a brief glimmer of hope as Rebecca Rose Ngo Nkot served two aces in a row, but the Kazaks stretched their lead again and were 16-8 ahead at the second TTO.
Pavlova got in a few big spikes in the final run-in as Kazakhstan widened the lead further and finished off the game.
