U-19 African Nations Volleyball Championship: Nigeria beat Cameroon
Nigeria’s under-19 male volleyball team on Thursday fought back from two sets down to record an opening start to the 2020 Under-18 Girls and Under-19 Boys African Nations Volleyball Championship.
The Nigerian side who are the competition’s defending champions beat Cameroon 3-2 in a pulsating match at the indoor hall of the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Cameroon raced to a 4-1 lead in the opening set, after opening scores, before Nigeria overcame the jitters to draw level at 6-6.
It became a ding-dong affair thereafter, with scores at 15-15 and 20-20 later on, before Cameroon broke away to win the opening set 25-21.
In the second set, Nigeria took the lead only to soon fall behind at 8-12, before a resurgence saw them at 13-13, 14-13 and 14-15.
They then plunged to 21-24, before Cameroon went on to win 23-25 for a 2-0 lead that should have dropped all heads in the home team.
From going down 0-3 in the third set, the Nigerian team regrouped, with Alex Jeremiah, Lange Ogunboyejo, Abdul Jaiyeola, Abari Michael, Oyedepo Oyewale and Lawal Babatunde raising their game.
They fought back to draw level at 4-4, before going on to lead 15-13 and later 21-16, 22-20, 24-22 and 25-23 to peg back the Cameroonians.
The Nigerian team got encouraged by the vociferous home support drawn mostly from players and coaches of the Nigerian under-18 female team and the volleyball supporters group’s band.
Nigeria had a good beginning to lead 1-0 and later 6-4, 10-7, 16-11, before breaking away at 20-12 to go on and win 25-14 to draw the game level at 2-2.
The inspiration was now evident for Nigeria to cling on to, especially as Cameroonian heads were dropping, leading 4-3, and then 9-6 and 14-9, before finally winning 15-9.
NAN reports that The Gambia will take on Morocco on Friday in the male competition’s other game.
Nigeria will take on Gambia in their next match on Saturday, while Cameroon will face Morocco the same day.
Four teams are taking part in the competition’s under-19 category.
(NAN)
We have recently deactivated our website's comment provider in favour of other channels of distribution and commentary. We encourage you to join the conversation on our stories via our Facebook, Twitter and other social media pages.
More from Peoples Gazette
Agriculture
FG tasks ECOWAS on leveraging financing strategies for agroecology
The federal government has urged stakeholders in the agriculture and finance sectors in the West Africa region to leverage financing strategies to enhance agroecology practices
Politics
Katsina youths pledge to deliver over 2 million votes to Atiku
“Katsina State is Atiku’s political base because it is his second home.”
Economy
Stakeholders push policy retention as CBN’s monetary policy committee meets
In its 305th meeting in May, the MPC retained the monetary policy rate at 26.5 per cent.
States
Man seeks court order for access to two-year-old son
The judge adjourned the case until August 11 for mention.
States
Police foil cult initiation in Delta, recover firearms
The police spokesman said recovered exhibits included one pump-action gun, one cut-to-size double-barrelled gun, seven live cartridges and two expended cartridges.
Lagos
Sanwo-Olu pays N3.1 billion compensation to 300 Lagos property owners
Mr Sanwo-Olu presented more than N3.1 billion in compensation to over 300 property owners affected by government land acquisition.
Economy
FG pledges policy support for sustainable aviation fuel
He stated that while aviation remains critical to economic growth, the sector must also contribute meaningfully to global efforts to address climate change.
NationWide
Cost-reflective tariffs will improve Nigeria’s power sector: Expert
“Cost-reflective tariffs will not only improve delivery but also encourage new investments in both fossil-fuel and renewable energy generation,” he said.
