The bankers had trailed by as much as five points towards the end of the opening set but recovered to win 28-26 and coach Japheth Munala was relieved with the fight his girls gave.
“We struggled a lot in the first set because of our defense on the net as well as the back of the court. We didn’t deal with their attacks well but I want to thank my girls because they never gave up. DCI would have won that set but we gave a food fight and we were rewarded,” Munala said.
They recovered to win the second and third sets 25-17 and 25-15 respectively and have now set up a grand finale against defending champions Kenya Pipeline on the last day of the play-offs on Wednesday.
“We want to go on and win the Cup. We are now number two but tomorrow (Wednesday) we will give a good fight to ensure we get the trophy,” Munala added.
KCB were off to a poor start with KCB making the most of it. They led 7-4 prompting Munala to call a time out. It worked a bit as they rallied to lead 9-8, but DCI also called a time out.
DCI were in the mood with Sarah Namisi being the chief destroyer with her strong hits across the net, and they kept KCB chasing. They led 21-16 and were scenting victory. But, the never say die bankers, after a time out, closed down the score to 22-20 but once again DCi pulled clear with two quick points to come within match point.
Munala made changes, skipper Edith Wisa and Esther Mutinda coming in. The duo helped to stabilize the ship and they rallied the score to 24-24.
They went toe to toe until 26-26 up when DCI’s Mercy Iminza made two costly errors, one on service, the other on blocks, that handed KCB the set.
The second set was also toughly contested, with the two sides exchanging leads that didn’t exceed a point all through.
But the bankers started pulling away at 15-15 and they led 23-17, with Mercy Moim’s point on service giving them the healthy cushion. Sharon Maywa and Belinda Barasa put in a solid block at match point to hand KCB a 2-0 set score lead.
The third set was an easy take out for KCB and once they had established a lead of 10 points at 15-5, coach Munala made changes, pulling out most of his starters to give the rest who hadn’t tasted game time an opportunity.
And they took the ship home safely, winning without dropping a set.
Meanwhile, the men’s league will have a new champion this season after holders General Service Unit were stunned by Kenya Ports Authority on straight sets (25-23, 25-22, 25-14).
The paramilitary men had started off well yesterday with a straight sets victory against the Kenya Defense Forces but were caught out by a hard fighting KPA side.
Kenya Prisons have meanwhile put themselves in the lead of the four-team play-offs after getting their second victory, a straight sets whitewash of KDF (28-26, 25-17, 25-15).
