Hamamatsu, Japan, September 15, 2019 – The Netherlands beat Kenya 3-0 (25-12, 25-19, 25-17) in the first match on the second day of the FIVB Women’s World Cup at Hamamatsu Arena on Sunday.
Netherlands coach Jamie Morrison: "Kenya have gotten better in the last two months. I was especially impressed with their defence in the first set and their serve in the second set got us into trouble. I’m happy with the result. We will continue to improve as this tournament goes on. I thought there were pieces today that were better than yesterday, so we will continue to improve tomorrow night against Brazil."
Netherlands captain Maret Balkestein-Grothues: "I think today we played a solid game, especially our serve was very good. In the second set, we had some problems, especially they put serve pressure on us, but in the end I think we did a good job, stayed calm and came out of it. So, I’m happy with this 3-0 victory and now we can face Brazil tomorrow."
Kenya coach Paul Bitok: "I can say the Kenya team came into this match knowing we will be playing against the Netherlands, a team we played against a few months ago in Olympic qualifiers. We lost with bad scores then - one set we lost 25-7. So we wanted today to try our best and improve our scores. Also, we wanted to use yesterday’s match after playing well against USA and we wanted to improve to increase our level.
"Coming into today, we wanted to relax and enjoy and not to have any pressure. The Netherlands had more pressure than us. We pushed them, especially on the service and it worked for us. At some point, we were very close in the scores. What is still remaining for us is to start good because we are always following from behind. At one time, we were losing 9-1 and we managed to reach 13-13. I hope that what we have experienced today will help us for the next match and if we continue like this, it will get better and better."
Kenya captain Mercy Moim: "I want to thank the Netherlands and congratulations to my team for playing good. When you compare this game and the last game when we played them in Italy, I think we have improved so much. For my team, I think we played a super game and we are improving each and every day. I think by the end of the tournament we are going to win some matches."