Nemostars, Nkumba at ease

KCCA’s Awor Femia unleashes a spike against Ndejje in the semi-finals. PHOTO BY ISMAIL KEZAALA

KCCA ladies and Sport-S men have the unenviable task of stopping Nkumba University and Nemostars’ dominance in the Aziz Damani National Volleyball League.
The sides meet today in the opening encounters of the best of three finals at MTN Arena – Lugogo with lots at stake.
Nemostars are chasing a fourth straight men’s title to make them six. But this is also their only ticket to the Africa Club Championships, where they placed sixth last year.
Sport-S, meanwhile, have not won the title since 2011 and captain Dickens Otim insists “that is exactly why need it now.” “I think we have met them in two finals since and they won but these are different times. Our team is better and hungry to win,” said Otim. Nemo’s coach Andrew Okapis, knows he comes up against a team that is also more experienced than the aggressive Uganda Christian University (UCU) they edged 2-1 in last year’s final and this year’s semi-finals.
And he might be forced to start stronger than the style he has subconsciously adopted over the past two years, where he goes easy to study opponents in Game One before blowing them out in Games Two and Three.
“We cannot guarantee that we are favourites now but we always turn up to play our best while having fun,” Okapis said.
For the ladies, KCCA have seen no title since 2012 while Nkumba are chasing a record seventh.
There has been an attempt to mark this as a contest between KCCA coach Johnson Kawenyera and Nkumba’s Tonny Lakony as they have contested the last three finals – the former with Ndejje University twice.
“It is not us that play so I prefer we focus on the teams,” Lakony said, laughing off the subplot.