Kenya women’s volleyball team Malkia Strikers coach, Geoffrey Omondi, is upbeat ahead of their second match in Pool “G” against Poland in the FIVB World Championship in Phuket,Thailand on Monday.

Kenya on Saturday lost in straight sets of  22-25, 08-25, 20-25) to Germany in their opening group match.

Speaking after their training session on Sunday, Omondi said if they can pick from where they left on Saturday, they were capable of causing an upset against the third ranked country in the FIVB World rankings.

“The players did a fantastic job when they played Germany, and we hope that they will have the same gusto when they play Poland. We have trained well and tried to make amends in the areas that we were not good at when we played Germany. And I believe we can cause an upset against Poland. The players are in good spirits after some received their allowances, and now the concentration is on the remaining matches,” said Omondi, who doubles up as the Kenya Volleyball Federation National League champions Kenya Pipeline coach.

“If we can bag a set or two or even win the  match altogether, then it will be something. This team has what it takes to compete at the highest level if they can get international friendlies like we did prior to the competition. All this is geared towards the 2028 Olympic Games,” he added.

Kenya played and lost to Spain and hosts Vietnam in friendly matches last week. The African champions will play their last pool match against Vietnam on Wednesday.

The top two teams at the end of the preliminary matches will proceed to the second round.

On the other hand, Poland coach Stefano Lavarini was cautious ahead of Monday’s match, saying he would not underrate Kenya.

Lavarini said that Kenya was a physical side that could cause an upset when you least expected.

“Just like Vietnam yesterday (Saturday), they pushed us to the wall and in fact bagged the first set, and that shows how volleyball is evolving. It’s on that note that we are keen to take every match seriously so that we can qualify to the second round. We played Kenya at the Olympics and although we beat them 3-0, they played really well,” said Lavarini.

Malkia Strikers captain Meldina Sande confirmed that some players had received their allowances after the team decried failure by the government to pay their allowances in time.

“We the Ministry of Sports, National Olympic Committee of Kenya and Mozzart for their support. We are now settled and ready to compete and record good results. We thank Kenyans back home for their support, and we pray that we will make them proud,” said Sande, who plays for Rwanda Police.