The national women’s volleyball team, Malkia Strikers fly to Paris Monday from Miramas four days to the start of the Olympics Games, hoping to make an impression in the summer competition.

The team has been hard at work in Miramas, and Coach Japheth Munala is confident that the team is ready to challenge for the honours after winning two friendly matches in Miramas.

The Kenyan side defeated local side Salon de Provence by straight sets (25-14, 25-14 ,25-14) after beating Istres 3-0 (25-13, 25-16, 25-12) in their first friendly.

“What I can say is that we have already covered everything we had planned. The only challenge was in selecting our starting team which we have now decided - who will be starting and who will be coming as substitutes,” said Munala.

Kenya Pipeline volleyball team attacker Pamela Adhiambo who is a former Nyakach Girls High School student says that the two friendlies have helped them fine-tune their cohesion.

“Based on our last friendly we had problems in our reception but in our second game we really improved on it. So we need to work on perfecting it so that we become more accurate,” Pamela said.

Kenya will open her campaign against third ranked Brazil on July 29 before taking on Poland, ranked seventh, on July 31 and then wrap-up with a clash against Japan, placed ninth on August 3.

The Strikers have had a poor outing in the past failing to win a single set in the event and will be out to right the wrongs.