Iran's national volleyball team lost to the Champion of London Olympic, Russia on Sunday to mark its third defeat in Japan’s Volleyball World Cup.
Iran’s Amir Ghafour and Mojtaba Mirzajanpour finished the match with 12 points each. Iran suffered with 27 turnovers that allowed Russia to build a good lead in crucial moments of the match. Muserskiy tallied 20 points, including 16 kills, one block and three aces; and Maxim Mikhaylov added 10 more points for the great Russian triumph.
Iran were off to a quick start by converting their shots from both wings, with Mir Saeid Marouflakrani getting his hitters involved this early on offence. Iran were up 8-5 at the first technical timeout but Russia regrouped and tied the score at 9-all. Iran were rewarded with a 12-10 lead as they played excellent floor and net defence. In the late stages of the set, Russia tirelessly challenged the Asian side and succeeded in finding the hole in the Iranian defence. Russia claimed the first set victory 26-24 from an Iranian service error and a Muserskiy attack.
The Russian offence flourished in the second set as Muserskiy and Mikhaylov fired bullet spikes from the wings but their rivals later on plugged the hole on the Russian hitters’ cross-court spikes that allowed for an Iranian comeback. After a series of deadlocks, the Russians benefitted from the Iranian errors that logged a 22-16 lead. Russia pulled through in the second set 25-18 off Iran’s two consecutive errors. Iran started off strong in the third set but the Russians played with great tempo to rally past them late in the set 25-20.
In order to hold their next three matches at the World Cup, Iran’s national volleyball team have travelled for 300 kilometers on Sunday to reach the city of Osaka, Japan.
Iranian volleyball players will continue their bodybuilding and weightlifting training sessions in the form of two groups under the supervision of the team’s staff today at 18:00 o’clock Osaka’s local time.
Iran will play against Italy, America, and the host Japan on Wednesdays, Thursday and Friday this week.
The 13th Volleyball World Cup started on September 8 in Japan and will continue for 16 days with the 12 teams holding their final matches in Tokyo.
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