Vacoas, Mauritius, April 23, 2005 - Both Tunisia and Cameroon claimed their second victory of the 2006 Women’s World Championship first round tournament (Africa Pool C) in Vacoas, Mauritius after beating Mauritius and Uganda in straight sets respectively on Saturday.

Tunisia’s 25-17, 25-13, 25-23 win over the organizers and Cameroon’s 25-21, 25-18, 25-14 demolition job of Uganda sets both winners up for a match on Sunday on the final day of the tournament to determine the second of three African women’s tickets to the prestigious final round of the 2006 Women’s World Championship in Japan after Egypt already secured the first ticket in March.
Pic: Tunisian fans cheer their side on
In the first match on Saturday, Cameroon took only 71 minutes to clinch their second win from as many matches, playing much improved Volleyball than the opening day when they beat Mauritius 3-0 (25-19, 25-15, 25-17). Cameroon used their big gun Daniele Minsile Avebe, the best scorer of the match with 12 points, to penetrate the Ugandan defense and move one step closer to their World Championship dream.

Uganda put on a better performance than their match on the first day when they lost to Tunisia 3-0 (25-14, 25-13, 25-20) especially with spiker Agatta Baliddawa and blocker Emma Ariyo playing at their inspirational best. Uganda improved as the match wore on but Cameroon, with their stable line up, found it easy to call on all their experience in the second and third sets with Ombassa Sombang and Mbeya Ambatta particularly dominant.

In the second match Tunisia was too classy for Mauritius despite the best efforts of the local fans to roar Mauritius on home. It was not an easy game for the winners but Tunisia used their promising stars Arabia Rafrafi and Mariem Brik to great effect to claim the first and second sets before Mauritius stepped up their game in the third set to lead many times through the spikes of Maita Bassy and Sanderine Jery. But, again the experienced Tunisian players won the critical points to win the third set narrowly.

“I knew that we would have a tough game today because Mauritius is good but didn't play well yesterday against Cameroon,” Tunisia coach Lofti Ben Slimane said. “Now we are focused on our last match in which tactically we must be at the top level.”

Day three of the 2006 Women’s World Championship first round tournament (Africa Pool C) on Sunday sees Mauritius take on Uganda followed by Cameroon playing Tunisia in the match which will decide which team advances through to the final round.