Nigeria’s U17 girls on Thursday lost to Egypt in the finals of the 2023 Girls U17 African Nations Volleyball Championship at the indoor sports hall package B of the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja.
The girls from Nigeria, who lost 3-0 to Egypt in the opener on Monday, yet again fell short of a victory. They could only muster one set out of four as the Egyptians won 3-1 (25-21, 20-25, 25-22, 25-21) to become African U17 Volleyball Champions.
Also Read: NVBF President Pleased With Nigeria’s U17 Girl’s Victory
The defeat for Nigeria means thet go home with silver, while Cameroon takes the bronze medal.
Reacting to the outcome of the game, the head coach of Nigeria U17 Girls, Sunday Akapson, who had mixed feelings after the defeat, said this is a result of a good grassroot development program which only gets better.
“It’s a mixed feeling. Mixed feeling in the sense that we are not happy that we lost in the finals, but at the same time, we are excited because the young girls proved themselves to be worthy. And this is a very good grassroots development for Nigeria volleyball in general. Because we have a grassroot development program, which we have seen the result right now and we are still going to work further to improve on this. So that in the nearest feature Nigeria will be saved in the senior category of volleyball in Africa and the world.”
Also reacting to the loss was the captain of Nigeria and the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the tournament, Mirabel Onyegwu, who assured a better result in her team’s next outing.
“This was not the result we expected, but we just took it as faith, cause next time we are going to push harder. We grassroot here we need encouragement, people to encourage us more to keep pushing.”
The MVP added that the team needs to work on team spirit as they aim for gold at the World Championship next year.
“We are going there to bring back the trophy and collect our gold back. We are lacking in team spirit but I ensure all Nigerians that we will work on it.”
Meanwhile, the coach of Egypt, Islam Tayea, didn’t hide his joy as he affirmed that their victory was due to the time they put into preparing for the tournament.
“I’m very proud, we prepared this team for a long time, for six, seven months in a close camp. We study before the match how to win, the weakest point and the strongest point for each team.
Nigeria team is good now.”
Captain of Egypt El-Safy Award Nour said it was a combine effort from the team as everyone one of them did their part to earn them the victory.
Egypt went through the competition as the favourite and they didn’t hold back as they were the only team in the tournament who didn’t suffer a defeat.
During the closing ceremony, all three teams who finished on the podium saw their players bagging individual awards for their outstanding performance.
For the champions of the tournament Egypt, Retaj Kammerq, El-Safy Award Nour and Asar Joudy were awarded Best Blocker, Best Receiver and Best Setter respectfully.
While Miriani Matoukam of Cameroon was named best Libero and her teammate Lucie Ekani went home as the Best Attacker.
Nigeria’s Pamela Bawa went home as the best server of the tournament. While Mirabel Onyegwu was adorned with the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.
All eyes for this three countries now turn to next year’s world championship.
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