Leemisa Thuseho
REDSKINS volleyball club men and women teams have qualified for the 2022 Zone VI Senior Club Championships.
This year’s tournament will be held in Zambia in December.
The Redskins teams earned tickets to the event after winning the local qualifying tournament held over the weekend at Ratjomose.
The male’s team qualified following their 3-0 win over Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) in the qualifiers final. Before the finals, LDF were on the back of 3-1 win over Lepereng Olympafrika Centre (LOC) in the semifinals while LDF advanced to the finals after beating LMPS 3-0.
In ladies’ competition, Redskins beat LOC ladies 3-2 in the final to qualify for the zonal competition. The two teams met in the final after their respective triumphs in the semifinals. In the semifinals LOC beat LDF 3-0 while Redskins also defeated Mahlaseli 3-0.
Redskins coach Tšepo Raletooane said he was satisfied with the display showed by his respective teams.
He said he is on the process of building teams that will represent Lesotho well when it hosts the zonal club championships for the first time in December next year.
“It wasn’t easy but we made it and I am happy with my teams fighting spirit,” Raletooane said.
“So far, I am convinced that we are on the right track towards building competitive teams to prepare for the championships coming to Lesotho next year.
“We are going to work hard to also perform well in the league to increase our qualifying chances. Like I have been saying from the start of the league I am rebuilding our teams by introducing young players, I can tell they are gradually getting there where I want them.”
In preparations for the Zambia championships, he said they will mainly use the league while also planning to have some friendlies games outside the country in order to enhance his young players international exposure.
Normally, Lesotho gets a representative for the zonal championships from the national league but this year the Lesotho Volleyball Association (LVA) resolved to organize a qualifying tournament. This is after the association failed to stage the league in the past two years on the back of Covid-19 pandemic.
LVA vice president technical, Makhala Lehloenya, said this tournament was organised only to get Lesotho representatives for this year’s championships. As for next edition to be hosted by Lesotho next year, she said they will get teams from the LVA ongoing national league.
“For this year’s zonal club championships, we didn’t have teams to represent us because we didn’t have national league for the past two years, so we resolved to organize a special tournament to get teams to represent the country in December.
“However, for next year championship will send the teams who will win our national league in both men and women categories,” Lehloenya said.