Iran fails to edge past US in FIVB Volleyball World League

The national Iranian men’s volleyball team has lost to the United States, accepting its second consecutive defeat at the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) World League 2016.

On Friday, the Iranian side, which had captain Saeid Marouf, Milad Ebadipour, Shahram Mahmoudi, Mohammad Mousavi, Adel Gholami, Mohammad Javad Manavinejad and Mehdi Marandi, in its initial lineup for the Pool B fixture at Carioca Arena 1 indoor stadium of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, conceded a 1-3 (25-23, 13-25, 25-27 and 24-26) defeat to the reigning champion.

The Iranian volleyball players started the match energetically, and presented neat serves and attacks to go on earning points and finally close the set at 25-23.

The outcome of the first set in favor of Iran prompted an immediate reaction from the US team.

The Americans then took the game to the wire as the match progressed into the second set. They established domination on court and closed the second set off at 25-13.

The Iranian squad tried to fight back in the third set and almost caught up in the score, but the American volleyball players could grab the set 27-25 at last.

The US team maintained its composure and lead into the fourth set, and went on racking up points to finally clinch a 26-24 victory.

Matthew Anderson of the United States topped the scorers’ chart of the breathtaking match with 23 points. Iran's Shahram Mahmoudi accumulated 16 points for his side.

“We played better than last match, but we still have to improve some details. I liked the way that the team behaved after losing the second set. We had some opportunities to win the fourth set, but we did not,” Iran coach Raul Lozano said after the match.

“We had a beautiful game tonight. The biggest thing was the serve reception, and that we did better than Iran team. That is why we won. It was an amazing match by Anderson. He is our star. He carried us, and we rode him all way to victory. It was nice to see him rebound after last night’s match, which was not a great match. But, tonight he came back and was in a great form,” US captain David Lee said.

Brazil used a service storm over Iran on June 16 to win 3-0 (25-19, 25-16, 28-26) in the opening match of the FIVB Volleyball World League 2016.

Iran men's national volleyball team is scheduled to play against Argentina on Saturday in its third Pool B match.

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