Junior Iranian v-ballers overpower Macau in Asia games

Iran’s young female volleyball players pummeled Macau on Sunday celebrating their first win at the preliminary round of the 18th edition of the Asian Women’s U19 Volleyball Championship in Thailand. 

The Iranian team, comprising Mona Ashofteh, Sogand Haqparast, Hannanah Karami, Fatemeh Solgi, Negin Shirtari, Fatemeh Enayat and Sara Nazari in its initial lineup, blanked Macau 3-0, with the set scores of 25-14, 25-10 and 25-16, in its second Pool C game of the tournament in the northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima.

“The game result was unsurprising, and we knew that we would win the encounter in three straight sets. Our team’s goal is to defeat India. We fielded different players throughout today’s match in a bid to fix the proper lineup vis-à-vis India,” Iran’s head coach Fariba Sadeqi said after the match.

“If we emerge triumphant over India in tomorrow’s showdown against India, we would move up four positions irrespective of future game results. The Indian team is technically and tactically similar to ours, and nobody can predict what the result of tomorrow’s match would be.”

Iran will play against India in its third Pool C fixture on Monday.

The 18th edition of the Asian Women’s U19 Volleyball Championship started on July 23 and will wrap up on July 31.

The top two teams of the tournament will automatically qualify for the 2017 FIVB Volleyball Women's U20 World Championship in Mexico.

The 15 teams participating in the sports event are divided into four pools with a single round-robin system in place for the preliminary round, which takes place from July 23 to 25 in two venues, The Mall Nakhon Ratchasima’s MCC Hall and Nakhon Ratchasima Rajabhat University Gymnasium.

The top two teams from each pool will advance to the quarterfinals, while the lower-ranked sides will compete in the 9th-15th classification round.

Pool A only consists of three teams: Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. Title-holders China, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan and New Zealand are in Pool B.

Pool C includes India, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Japan and Macau. Australia, the Philippines, South Korea and Taiwan are in Pool D.

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