News / Sports

Iran struggles past New Zealand in Asian Women’s U23 Volleyball Championship

Tuesday, 16 May 2017 7:50 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 16 May 2017 7:50 AM ]

Iran women’s national under-23 volleyball team

The national Iranian volleyball team has recorded a hard-fought victory at the preliminary round of the second edition of Asian Women’s U23 Volleyball Championship in Thailand, overcoming the New Zealand side.

On Monday, the Iranian outfit, which had claimed a 3-0 (25-21, 25-23 and 25-16) victory over Malaysia in its opening Pool D match of the tournament the previous day, repeated the similar feat.

The Iranian sportswomen pulled off a 3-0 (28-26, 25-22, 25-20) win at the Mall Korat MCC Hall in the northeastern Thai city of Nakhon Ratchasima, and booked a spot at the round of the last eight teams.

Fatemeh Amini scored 15 points for Iran, including 12 attacks and 3 aces, while Farnaz Saei Esfahani added 10 points.

Alice Zeimann collected 17 points for New Zealand, including 11 kills and 5 ace serves.

“New Zealand played a good match against us. I gave them the thumbs up for the good fight. They caused us some problems, but fortunately we won. We are very happy to win this match and move up to the round of last eight teams to play both Japan and Vietnam. Certainly, it is going to be very tough for us. We will have to analyze their games and hope we will have a good result,” Iran’s head coach Sima Seddiqi said after the match.

The second edition of Asian Women’s U23 Volleyball Championship started in Thailand on May 13, and will finish on May 21, 2017.

The tournament serves as the Asian qualification tournament for the 2017 FIVB Volleyball Women's U23 World Championship.

The tournament will be hosted by Slovenia in the cities of Ljubljana and Maribor from August 27 to September 3, 2017. A total of 12 teams are expected to compete.

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