The Nigeria Volleyball Team will Saturday take on Cameroon in the quarter-final of the ongoing 2021 African Men’s Senior Volleyball Nations Championship in Kigali, Rwanda.

Nigeria defeated Ethiopia 3-1 (25-20, 25-12, 32-34, 25-17) in their last match of Pool B on Friday to qualify for the quarter-finals for the first time in 16 years.

Head coach of Nigeria men’s team, Usman Abdallah, expressed satisfaction with his team’s performance against the Ethiopians while looking forward to an upset win in the quarter-finals.

“It was a good performance from the team today, we played really well though it was a tough game from the Ethiopians.

“I am happy we could deal with the danger they posed in the first set, but they became more determined in the third set where they eventually won by 34-32 points,” Mr Abdallah said after the game.

He said Nigeria wants to improve on her previous position in the Nations’ Championship.

The coach explained that in 2019, “Nigeria was missing at the African Nations Championship due to unforeseen circumstances, whilst in 2017, we finished in 13th position, which was very poor. This time around, Nigeria wants to make a statement at this year’s edition”.

Nigeria will battle Cameroon in their quarter-finals match at the Kigali Arena, Saturday by 4:00 p.m.