The Iran men’s national under-21 volleyball team has started its campaign at the 2018 Asian Men's Volleyball Cup, also known as the 2018 Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Cup for Men, on a high note, defeating Chinese Taipei.
Behrouz Ataei’s men kept up the momentum throughout the competitive Pool B encounter in Taipei on Wednesday, and managed to beat the hosts by 25–23, 14–25, 25–21 and 25–23 score lines.
Hong-min Liu scored a team-high 19 points for Chinese Taipei, including 16 kills from 35 attempts.
Pourya Yali scored 23 points for Iran, including 22 attacks from 36 attempts.
“Except for a bit of unacceptable reception, my players did well at receiving and counter attacking overall. However, we could not score effectively due to Iran’s height advantage in blocking. Also, my players need improvement in serving due to a bit of service errors resulted from trying to shake Iran’s reception,” Chinese Taipei head coach Yu-an Chen commented after the match.
He added, “Our performance was acceptable in general, but we made too much error in serving and could not keep the power of service. Our height made us suffer from blocking.”
The Iran men’s national under-21 volleyball team is scheduled to face Australia in its next game on Thursday.
The 2018 Asian Men's Volleyball Cup started on August 8, and will wrap up on August 15, 2018.
Iran is pitted against Australia and Chinese Taipei in Pool B of the continental tournament.
Japan, Kazakhstan and South Korea are drawn in Pool A.
Pool C consists of Qatar, Thailand and Vietnam.