Team captain Gideon Angiro is leading a team of rookies all looking for their first league glory, and the start to the finals could not have been better.
UCU Doves will go into Saturday’s National Volleyball League Finals Game Two knowing that victory is enough to land a first-ever title in Mukono.
The university side has made a 360% turnaround to enter the title conversation after surviving relegation by a whisker last season.
Team captain Gideon Angiro is leading a team of rookies all looking for their first league glory, and the start to the finals could not have been better.
00:15 - 01.05.2023
VOLLEYBALL UCU Doves stun Sport-S to take Volleyball League finals lead
UCU got out of the blocks early, with Angiro and Nickson Tumusiime tearing through the Sport-S block to help the side to an early lead.
A nervy 3-2 win over Sport-S in Game One last Sunday left Elias Isiagi and his troops with one hand on the title.
Angiro, Nickson Tumusiime, Mark Omara and Ian Akampa were in top form in Game One and will have to maintain that to close the series and avoid handing Sport-S any momentum.
Sport-S still in it
Sport-S have been the best team in the country all season but have a habit of crumbling when the stakes are high in the playoffs.
Having last won the league in 2009, Benon Mugisha’s charges played like a team ready to end the long wait for the title in the regular season but now find themselves in a tricky situation that requires them to win or end the season in defeat.
Veteran Dickens Otim was introduced late in the decisive set in Game One and had two big blocks to stretch the frame.
His leadership and experience might be required even more in Game Two as the team looks to stay alive and win it all on Sunday.
09:23 - 05.05.2023
VOLLEYBALL Game One victory is history, says KCCA head coach as team looks to end 17-year wait for National Volleyball League title
One more victory will hand KCCA their first league title since 2006 but Omuriwe knows the series are not over until they get another three sets.
Thon Maker, Johnson Rukundo and Augustine Odongo remain big threats on offence for the Doves, while Samuel Engwau’s patrolling of the net has also been great all season and in Game One.
Do Sport-S have what it takes to force a decisive game? Of course, they do. They won 17 games and lost just one in the regular season, and that was not by mistake.
And while UCU is the only team to have beaten the Nsambya outfit in that dominant regular season, it will have to dig deep to win two in a row against a more experienced side.
And with Game Three scheduled for Sunday, victory would quickly swing the momentum in Sport-S’ favour.
National Volleyball League Finals
Game Two
Saturday, Old Kampala
Sport-S vs. UCU Doves -5pm (UCU lead 1-0)
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