The Nigeria Volleyball Federation (NVBF) yesterday announced the names of 15 players to represent the country at the forthcoming African Women Nations Cup in Cameroon.
The tournament, otherwise known as the African Women’s Volleyball Championship, is scheduled to hold between Saturday and Oct. 15.
Kehinde Lamidi, the Chairman of NVBF’s Media and Publicity Committee, said in a statement that the team was expected to leave Nigeria tomorrow for Cameroon.
The players are Ladi Jalmet, Verere Oyearone, Theresa Okonma, Aisha Umaru, Chinenye Nwosu, Esther Dusu, Albertina Francis, Mercy Promise, Agera Priscila, and Francisca Ikhiede.
The rest of the players are Comfort Amaonwu, Kelechi Iwobi, Mary John and Mary Ali.
Oyearone and Promise are the only foreign-based players invited by Abdallah to fortify the team.
Lamidi said the qualifiers would determine Africa’s representative at the 2018 Women’s World Cup in Japan.
“The Nigerian team will feature alongside other countries such as hosts Cameroon, Algeria, Ghana and Cape Verde. “Others are Egypt, Botswana, Tunisia, Chad, Congo DR, Kenya, Zambia and Senegal,” he said.
In the statement, the team’s Head Coach, Usman Abdalah, said Nigeria was parading youthful players whom he believed were capable of making the nation proud by winning the World Cup ticket.
Meanwhile, the President of NVBF, Musa Nimrod, has lauded the efforts of the Federation’s Technical Committee in the team selection process.
He charged the players and coaches to be good ambassadors of the country at the championship.
“I have confidence in the team winning a World Cup ticket in Cameroon, having done well in the previous qualifiers,” Nimrod said.
He assured the players of the Federation’s continued support for the team.
