SHARON NYAYA
MBERENGWA-Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe run schools continue to raise Mberengwa District flag as well as Midlands Province high as U17 Mnene High girls were crowned 2023 volleyball national champions.
Mnene girls team were crowned champions on Sunday 25 June 2023 at Mazowe High School in Mashonaland Central Province where they competed against other school teams from across the country’s 10 provinces.
This is the best sports news again for ELCZ run schools after Chegato High School U20 soccer girls earlier this month won the right to represent the Midlands Province at the National Association of Secondary Heads (NASH) competitions to be held next month.
“I am pleased to inform you that Mnene High are the newly crowned 2023 national champions of the NASH U17 girls volleyball competitions. I am very, very pleased with their performance and I can see a bright future in volleyball. Congratulations Mberengwa and thank you for the support,” said an ecstatic Mnene High School head, Francis Hove.
Mnene High clinched the title after beating the highly rated Rusununguko High 2-1 in the final at Mazowe High in Mash. Central.
On the road to the title, Mnene accounted for Kanyemba from Mash East Province and Imbizo of Bulawayo in the qualifying round to reach the quarterfinals where they went on to dispatch Pakamani High 2-0.
In the semi-finals the champions beat Pamushana High of Masvingo Province 2-1 for Mnene to reach the finals where they faced Rusununguko High.
The final was a closely fought affair which Mnene triumphed 2-1 to walk away with the title.
Mnene also walked away with awards that included; Most valuable player, Best setter and Best receiver. Five girls were selected for trials into the Zimbabwe schools team to play at the Confederation of School Sport Association of Southern Africa (COSSASA) games. The COSSASA games are held annually and using the Olympics format for schools drawn from countries in SADC region.
This is the second time that Mnene have won the title after they first won it in 2015. They first made it to the national finals in 2013 from where they qualified for the finals on the bounce until 2019 when the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the games.
Mnene has also done well in Beach Volleyball, winning 6 national titles from 2014 to 2019 in different age sex groups.
The team coach Chrispen Chibhira was very thrilled with the win although he had assembled a completely new team. He said the girls rose to the occasion and performed beyond expectations on the big stage.
