Volleyball Lionesses to make U21 Women's World Championships debut 2026.

The team secured the qualification ticket after finishing second at the 2025 Under20 African Nations Volleyball Championships which took place in Yaounde recently.

Volleyball’s global governing body, FIVB confirmed Cameroon’s qualification shortly after the end of the youth African championships where Cameroon lost to Kenya in the final to pick a silver medal in the continental competition.

Despite failing to secure the overall winner’s medal at the close of the 11-day tournament in Yaounde, FIVB announced that Cameroon had qualified for the next edition of the U21 women’s world championships by virtue of making the top three final ranking of the recent 2025 U20 African championships.

The body stated that Cameroon made the cut per the qualification format of the global championships which offers three entry tickets for the African continent beginning with the 2026 edition, up from the previous two.

Cameroon qualified for the tournament alongside newly-crowned African champions, Kenya and multiple African title holders, Egypt.

The north Africans beat Senegal to finish third and close the top-three final ranking of the African championships which ran from August 2 to August 12.

The Under21 Women’s World Volleyball Championship is one of the biggest age group competitions in volleyball globally. 

The number of participating African countries for the competition was increased from two to three after FIVB expanded the list of nations that are featuring in the final phase of the competition from 16 to 24 teams.

The Under20 Lionesses qualification for the 2026 showpiece sees Cameroon joining the likes of Egypt, Algeria, Kenya and Tunisia in the elitist class of African countries that have qualified for or participated in the final phase of the world championships for that age category.

Cameroon’s run of finishing as runners up in the 2025 African championships came after a spirited fight in the competition. 

The U20 Volleyball Lionesses outsmarted Kenya, Senegal, Burundi and Uganda in its four opening matches before losing to Egypt in its last game to rank first on the final standing of the opening round of the six-nation tournament.

The outfit progressed to secure a 3-0 sets win over Senegal in the semifinals before registering a result of 26-24, 25-19, 26-28, 25-15 to lose 3-1 sets to Kenya in the final of the tournament.

Team Cameroon’s duo of Souita Isabel and Simo Mogue Danielle Patricia made the Dream Team of the tournament following their crowning as the event’s Best Middle Blockers. 

Cameron’s Ottou Mebenga Francoise Arielle was also named Best Setter to complete the Dream Team which also included Egypt’s Elazhary Farah who was named as Best Libero and Kenya’s Malyne Idachi Terry Tata who was distinguished as the Most Valuable Player. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3537 of Monday August 18, 2025