Lesotho volleyball champs Red Skins glad for African Club Championship learning experience

Red Skins battled Africa's best volleyball clubs in Egypt

Lesotho volleyball champions Red Skins say they learned a lot from their recent experience at the 2018 Men’s African Club Championship.

Red Skins finished 24th out of 24 teams at the continental championships which were held in Egypt from March 27 to April 4 but say they will use the outing to improve.

Red Skins qualified for the tournament by claiming third place at the 2017 African Zone 6 Club Championships in December and the trip to Egypt was Red Skins’ and Lesotho’s first appearance at the continental volleyball games since 2011.

Things didn’t go as planned, however.

Red Skins were drawn in Group A against Prisons from Kenya, Uganda’s Nemo Stars, Espoir of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast’s AS Police and record 13-time champions, Al Ahly from Egypt.

Red Skins were overmatched all the way through. They lost each group game 3-0 and finished bottom of the group.

Following their group stage performance Red Skins were demoted to the placing competition where they lost to Port of Cameroon in the playoff for 17th position before eventually falling to Finances of Benin in the match to determine last place.

Nevertheless, Red Skins coach Tšepo Raletooane said the team gave their best.

“We were in one of the toughest groups against the heavyweights and the level of competition was very high. We gave it our all but unfortunately we lost,” he said.

Raletooane added that the experience of the African Club Championship was priceless.

“We come back home with this experience and we will use it to build Red Skins into a better side going forward,” he said. “All the teams that were in our group had played in this tournament at least five times in a row so you can just imagine the huge gap between them and us.”

"It was a good learning experience."

Raletooane, however, also pointed to the side’s poor preparations due to a lack of funding as a reason for Red Skins finishing with the wooden spoon.

“We tried to prepare but unfortunately our performance reflected how we prepared. Clearly, we did not prepare as well as our opponents,” he said.

Nonetheless, Red Skins experienced a stage in Egypt that they rarely encounter. For example, in the local Metropolitan premier volleyball league the side often play their games in front of a handful of spectators.

Red Skins’ group stage game against eventual African Club Championship champions and home favourites Al Ahly was played in front of 2000 people.

Red Skins’ group stage results:

Group A

		P	W	L	Pts.
1	Ahly (Egypt)	5	5	0	15
2	Prisons (Kenya)	5	4	1	12
3	Espoir (DR Congo)	5	3	2	9
4	Nemo Stars (Uganda)	5	2	3	5
5	As Police (Ivory Cost)	5	1	4	4
6	Red Skins (Lesotho)	5	0	5	0

Date	Match	Sets			Total Points	Time	Audience
		1	2	3
27 March	Prisons 3-0 Red Skins	25-15	25-14	25-22	75-51	1:15	300
28 March	Nemo 3-0 Red Skins	25-21	25-19	25-13	75-53	1:18	20
29 March	Red Skins 0-3 Espoir	14-25	22-25	19-25	55-75	1:20	50
30 March	Ahly 3-0 Red Skins	25-5	25-9	25-16	75-30	1:05	2,000
31 March	Red Skins 0-3 AS Police	17-25	19-25	14-25	50-75	1:18	50

Lesotho Volleyball to hold first-ever league awards ceremony

For the first time ever, the Metropolitan LVA League awards will take place in February

Finally, Lesotho’s volleyball players will have something to look toward to with news the Lesotho Volleyball Association (LVA) will hold its first-ever league awards on February 24.

The awards will be for both men and women players in the Metropolitan LVA League and will be awarded for the 2017 season which ended last November.

According to LVA public relations officer Buller Phalatsi, the prizes that will be up for grabs are: the best setter, best attacker, best blocker, best defender, best receiver, most improved team, most valuable player and team of the year.

“An SMS line will be launched whereby the public will vote for their favourite stars and teams,” Phalatsi explained. “The awards will enhance our league’s competiveness in that they will encourage the teams to work hard to be the best at the end of each and every season.”

“The awards are most definitely going to encourage the teams to do better in the coming season in order for them to be the biggest winners (when the end of season awards are held),” he added.

Phalatsi said increased levels of competition in the local league would only help local teams when they compete internationally.

2017 Metropolitan LVA league champions Redskins, for example, are gearing up for the 2018 African Volleyball Championship after their third place finish at last month’s African Zone 6 Club Championships which were held in Zimbabwe.

It will be the first time Lesotho has a contestant at the continental tournament since 2011.

The 2018 African Volleyball Championship will be held in Cairo, Egypt from March 27 to April 5.

Lesotho champions Redskins qualify for African Volleyball Championship

Redskins will represent Lesotho in Egypt...

Lesotho volleyball champions Redskins have qualified for the 2018 African Volleyball Championship which will be held in Egypt in March and April.

Redskins booked their place at the continental showpiece by claiming third place at the 2017 African Zone 6 Club Championships that were held in Zimbabwe last month. It will be Redskins and Lesotho’s first appearance at the continental volleyball games since 2011 when they were also held in Egypt.

Redskins will be looking forward to the trip after their strong performance at the Zone 6 Club Championships where they were unbeaten until the semi-finals when they went down to home favourites Support Unit.

Redskins, however, managed to bounce back to beat South African outfit Uni Jodi in the third-place play-off to claim bronze.

Redskins captain Moholo Lekomola congratulated and praised his team but said Lesotho needs to improve its development of volleyball in order to compete with other countries in the region.

“There is still a huge gap in terms of development, most teams in Lesotho do not have under age development teams and it is making local players lack basic volleyball skills and it is denying them an opportunity to grow in the sport,” Lekomola said.

The 2018 African Volleyball Championship which is set to be played at the Ahly Club hall is set to run from March 27 to April 5.

Qualified are required to confirm their final participation by March 5.

The defending African champions are Egypt’s Al Ahly of Egypt who claimed the last title in Tunisia.

Redskins to compete at regional Zone 6 volleyball games

Redskins at the African Club Championship in 2011

Lesotho’s volleyball champions Redskins will compete at the Zone 6 Club Championships next month. The championships will be held in Namibia and will run from December 11 to 17.

Both the Redskins men’s and women’s teams will do battle in Namibia after winning their respective league championships last year.

The regional Zone 6 games are contested by national volleyball champions from the Southern African region. The countries that have been invited and are expected to compete this year are Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, as well as the hosts, Namibia.

Redskins last won the regional crown in 2010 when they beat Kutloano in Botswana.

To rugby and the president of the Federation of Lesotho Rugby, Fetang Selialia, will attend the 12th Rugby Africa general assembly meeting which will be held in Botswana from December 1 to 4.

The assembly will be attended by members and the executive committee of the continent’s governing body, Rugby Africa. Representatives from World Rugby will also be in attendance.

One of the main topics at this year’s assembly is expected to be a discussion on a new strategic plan for 2017. However, most importantly for Lesotho, the assembly is set to see the FLR receive full Rugby Africa membership, a promotion from the affiliate status it received almost two years ago.  

It is another major achievement for the FLR which was only formed in 2012 but has made huge strides since.

The promotion follows a 2016 calendar year that was particularly successful for the national rugby team, Likatola.

This year saw Likatola claim bronze at the Africa Cup Division 2 championship in Rwanda in May before they capped their year with a 31-11 victory over Malawi away from home in August.

Staying with rugby and Maseru Warriors concluded a perfect Treasure Investment Group Rugby League campaign by defeating Mabote Beavers 24-5 on Saturday in what was the final day of the season.

Warriors had already been crowned champions last weekend but ensured a dominant season by brushing aside Mabote Beavers. The four-team league championship was introduced by the Federation of Lesotho Rugby in September to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the country’s independence. The teams that contested the championship were Warriors, NUL Spears, Mabote Beavers and LCS.