CUT’s Volleyball Queens Ready to Conquer Africa at Zone 6 Championships

THE Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) women’s team, recently crowned Zimbabwe Premier Volleyball League champions, aim to conquer Africa at the Zone 6 Senior Volleyball Club Championships in Maseru, Lesotho next month.

CUT beat Support Unit 3-1 in the final of the ZPVL, watched by a sold-out crowd at the University of Zimbabwe volleyball courts on Sunday.

The Mashonaland West volleyball team finished 12th on their debut at the Zone 6 senior volleyball championships. They aim to improve their performance.

The captain of CUT, Isabel Molebaleng, said they learned from last year and applied those lessons to perform well in this year’s ZPVL.

“We finished 12th last time, and we learnt a lot. Last time our Sports Director told us that we were going to the Zone 6 competition to learn, so we went to learn. We tried to win, but we saw that it was tough at the first time of asking,” she told EnterSportNews.

“We used what we learnt from Zone 6 to improve in the national league. Now, we hope that what we learned in the national league will help us at Zone 6 this time. Our goal is to finish in the top five.”

The CUT outside hitter paid tribute to the university’s Sports Director, Liberty Maidza, who has transformed the team from nearly women to winners.

“Our Sports Director was there when we beat Support Unit in the final. He is super proud of our achievements and has promised many things,” she added.

“He said we made him proud, and the whole university is happy. They are now preparing for us to go and do well at Zone 6.”

Maidza, who spent almost a decade as Deputy Sports Director at the University of Zimbabwe, is credited with transforming CUT into a formidable force by ensuring the team fulfils its fixtures.

Having Maidza on their team has allowed CUT to expand their reach and potentially dominate Africa.

“Now we can go to tournaments out of Zimbabwe and even the National League. Sometimes, you could see that funds are not balancing, but he ensures that we can travel and play. He is just the best,” quipped Molebaleng.

Molebaleng is still revelling in their win over Support Unit, having led the log standings for most of the season.

“It felt good to win the ZPVL. We had a goal that we would take the gold medal this year, and we did it. The pressure was too much, and we thank God we could handle it,” she said.

On the final against the more experienced Support Unit, the odds were heavily stacked against them.

“It was a tough one before we even played, everyone including our supporters, were asking, “Are you going to beat Support Unit”? But we just said to ourselves, we are going to beat them no matter what,” said the Tourism and Hospitality student.

She credited all their success to teamwork and the girls’ never-say-die attitude.

“In the final, we said in Shona, we are going to do dombo to dombo (If they hit, we are going to hit), plus teamwork helped us a lot.”

Teamwork has been the hallmark of success for CUT, and their game strategy is backing a player in form.

“At CUT, we say if someone is scoring, let’s give that person the ball and make sure that person scores,” Molebaleng said.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s one person scoring. There is no democracy in volleyball. That’s our strategy.”