Nigeria loses to Tunisia, battles Libya for semifinals ticket

NVBF appoints new national team coach
Nigeria recorded her first defeat at the ongoing African U-21 Men’s Volleyball Championship in Tunisia, losing to the hosts 3-0 (25-21, 25-18, 25-23).

Tunisia won 32 points from service and 43 points from receives, while Nigeria won 20 points from service and 42 points from receives. Tunisia had four aces, nine maximum points in a row, 10 service errors and used two timeouts, while Nigeria had one ace, four maximum points in a row, nine service errors and used five timeouts.

With Wednesday’s loss, Nigeria will now have to beat Libya to qualify for the semifinals.

Head coach of the team, Sani Mohammed, attributed the loss to errors and the home crowd support, saying that finishing second and securing a quarterfinal spot is an indication the team has potential of making it to the finals.

“This loss is a wake up call to the team. We cannot afford to make mistakes in the quarterfinals because it means we are out of the title race. We played against the crowd, they came out to support their team and won. We have studied this loss and we were leading before Tunisia came from behind to win the first and third set.

“Our match against Libya will be taken with high level of seriousness because we do not want to let the nation down,” he said.

Meanwhile, former assistant coach of the Serbian national team, Aleksandar Boskovic, has been appointed as the coach of the senior volleyball team. Boskovic, who won several trophies and awards with Serbia’s senior national team, said he is hoping to bring his experience to the Nigerian team.

The Serbian was in charge of Anorthosis-Cyprus from 2016-2021 and has also coached OK Crvena Zvezda,VC Shahrdari-Urmia-Iran, VC Al Tahadi-Libya, VC SC Mashhadoreza Mashad-Iran,VC Maribor-Slovenia, VC Volei ,Tomis Costanca-Romania and OK Volley Star-Belgrade-Serbia. He is expected to make the Nigerian senior national team competitive and hopefully compete for international titles.