Rwanda men's volleyball national team on Monday, September 11, beat Chad 3-0 for the 5th place qualifications at the ongoing 2023 Men’s African Nations championship in Cairo Egypt.
With the victory, Paulo De Tarso’s side will now face either Tunisia in contention to finish in 5th place in the overall ranking.
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Inspired by left-attacker and captain Wycliff Dusenge with devastating spikes, Rwanda were the better side from the off against a Chad side that noticeably lacked morale and proficiency in their blocking department. And, Rwanda leveraged on their weak points.
After a closely-fought first set, which in the end Rwanda grabbed 25-21, De Tarso’s men went on to take the second set 25-18 before wrapping up the game with a relatively easier third set at 25-20.
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Rwanda will now go head to head with defending champions Tunisia who won the previous edition in 2021 in Kigali.
Their title defense dreams came to an end when they lost their quarter-final match at the hands of Cameroon 3-2 on Saturday.
Egypt, Algeria to the final
Hosts Egypt continued to capitalize on their home advantage after a hard fought 25-13, 25-23, 35-33 , 29-27 victory over Cameroon on Monday night to book a ticket to the final.
The Pharaohs will again be playing before their home supporters when they face Northern African rivals Algeria in the final on Wednesday, September 13.
Algeria made it to the final after beating Libya
18-25, 25-15 3, 33-35, 25-22 5, 15-11 in a five-set thriller.
The two sides were locked on sets each only for the tiebreaker to decide the finalist in favour of the Algerians.
The Men's African Nations Volleyball Championship also serves as the 2024 Olympic qualifiers.
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During the 2021 edition which was held in Kigali, Rwanda was eliminated in the quarterfinals and finished in sixth place after losing to neighbours Uganda.