The Nigerian women volleyball team would leave Nigeria on Thursday for Abidjan for the 2018 FIVB Women’s World Championship qualifying tournament in Ivory Coast.

The tournament will hold between August 18 and 22 in Abidjan.

The competition is the first round of qualifiers for the World Championships and Nigeria are drawn in Pool C with Niger Republic, Ivory Coast and Ghana.

The top two countries in the pool will qualify for the second round of qualification, from where the two representatives of the continent will emerge.

The FIVB Women World Championship will hold in Japan from September 30 to October 21, 2018.

According to the Secretary-General of the Nigeria Volleyball Federation, Adamu Maikano, Nigeria will be represented by 14 female players, who were selected after a two-week training in Abuja.

The players are Ladi Jalmat, Theresa Okonma, Helen Umeh, Aisha Umar, Chinese Nwosu, Esther Dusu and Albertina Francis.

Others are Kelechi Iwobi, Agera Precilla, Comfort Amdu, Francisca Ikhiede, Chimdia Ive, Mary John and Chinedu Nnachi.

The team will be led by head coach Usman Abdallah and assistant Gloria Peter.

“The Nigerian women’s volleyball team have the target of reaching the second round and from there qualifying for the world championship next year,” Maikano said.
“They will leave for Abidjan [Thursday] for the first round of the qualifiers and we hope they will do well there.”