The Egyptians won the first set 25-22 but the national champions came back for a dominant second half performance to level the score at 18-25 and revive hopes for the title they last won in 2005.
Returning to the final of the Africa Women’s Club Championships for the first time since 2015, Paul Gitau's Kenya Pipeline settled for silver as curtains came down on this year's continental competition in Tunisia.
Pipeline headed to this year's competition with hopes for a double, having won the national title for the first time since 2017 but that was never to be.
Up against Egypt’s Zamalek, the six-time Africa champions fell 3-1 to a better-playing side, despite fighting to stay afloat in the second set.
The Egyptians won the first set 25-22 but the national champions came back for a dominant second half performance to level the score at 18-25 and revive hopes for the title they last won in 2005.
However, the newly crowned champions came back with a vengeance to win the third set 25-15, a set that saw Gitau play his second team after Zamalek went ahead 11-3 and it was clear his team would not recover. The set ended 25-15.
Pipeline put up a spirited fight in the fourth set with the hope of levelling matters to force a decider set five but Zamalek were too strong, and the Kenyans committed some crippling mistakes as well to go down 25-17 for silver.
Meanwhile, outgoing champions Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) won their fifth place match by straight sets (25-17, 25-18, 25-14) against APR of Rwanda to rank fifth.