AVC Women Champs/ Iran Earn 1st Win against Maldives

Manila, Philippines, August 11, 2017 – Though practically eliminated from the quarter-finals, Iran still finished the group stage round on a winning note after ripping Maldives 25-4, 25-13, 25-14 at the SMM 19th Asian Senior Women’s Volleyball Championship here.

Failing to score an upset against Chinese Taipei and Thailand for a spot in the Top 8, Iran vent their ire on the lowly Maldives as all of their spikers chipped in points in the one-sided affair marred by a 6.1 magnitude earthquake at the latter part of the game.

“We had two difficult matches against Chinese Taipei and Thailand and today we had a normal match against Maldives,” said Iran head coach Shojaei Mirmostafa through a translator.

Hard-hitting spiker Mina Roosta led the balanced scoring with 9 points while Mahdieh Khajehkolaei, Mahsa Saberi and Neda Chamlanian had 8 apiece.

The Iranians were so dominant for the oppositions that they almost blank Maldives in the first set, where they only gave away 4 points – all from their errors.

Maldives would then try to at least give themselves some morale boost from the humiliating opening frame in the ensuing sets, managing to score 13 of their 31-point total.

Both Iran and Maldives will figure in classification matches as the tournament continues on Sunday.

“We are readying ourselves for future matches,” said Mirmostafa.