Spiking Stars women’s volleyball team has raised Botswana’s flag high at the CAVB Zone VI Region Clubs that was held at Ditshupo Hall in Gaborone from the 5th -15th December 2024, securing second position among 19 women’s volleyball teams from different countries that participated at the competition.
The CAVB Zone VI Region Clubs attracted different men and women’s volleyball teams from Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Lesotho, Eswatini. The local women’s teams that participated at the event include Kutlwano, Spiking Stars, Mafolofolo, BDF VI and Police VI while the men’s teams included BDF VI, Mag Stimela, Prisons VI, Spiking Stars, Kutlwano, Kalavango, Yaros, and Police VI.
UP Maputo from Mozambique were crowned champions of the tournament under the women’s category while Green Buffaloes from Zambia took position three. Under the men category, teams UZ Wolves from Zimbabwe emerged the champions; Highlanders Fc also from Zimbabwe took position two while Green Buffaloes from Zambia took position three.
In an interview, Spiking Stars Team and Welfare Manager Thabo Tlale said that they secured the second spot at the CAVB Zone VI Region Clubs through a combination of strong teamwork, strategic preparation, and consistent performance throughout the tournament. Tlale has told Times Sport that their team focused on maintaining solid communication on and off the court, ensuring that they played as a cohesive unit.
“We also analysed our opponents’ strengths and weaknesses, which helped us implement our strategies effectively during the matches. In addition, we tried our best to stay physically and mentally prepared, which helped us overcome challenges with resilience and determination. Our dedication to Improvement, both individually and as a team, ultimately played a crucial role in achieving such a high finish,’’ he said.
Tlale has revealed that their preparations started early in January, where the main focus was physical conditioning and then later moved to sports-specific training.
However, Tlale has lamented that during the competition they faced a few challenges such as physical fatigues while their players got injured during the semi-finals, which affected their performance at the finals. He further stated that the intense competition and pressure of tight matched tested his athletes’ endurance and mental toughness.
“Another challenge is the finances to support and prepare a team for such a tournament, from registration fees, to transport, accommodation and feeding such group for 10 days,” he said.
Despite that, Tlale noted that the tournament has provided valuable lessons and opportunities, including improving the team’s skills, game management, enhancing teamwork, learning new strategies, in overall boosting the team’s confidence through overcoming those obstacles.
For his part, Botswana Volleyball Federation (BVF) Ndibo Lebala has told this publication that the objective of the competition was to contribute in hosting high level events as a support to the government’s MICE strategy. He noted that through the competition they intended to expose more of the local clubs to such a tournament which was last held in Botswana in 2013 as some players have never been exposed to it. He said that the tournament has contributed to the economy and promoted sports tourism.
“Our teams did well, the boys team though they did not secure medals, Police VI took position five and they are amongst the high ranking teams, Prisons VI also won some games,” he said.
