Iran too strong for China in Men's Volleyball Nations League

WARSAW, July 17 (Xinhua) -- China suffered a straight-sets defeat against Iran in the FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League preliminary phase in Gdansk, Poland, on Thursday.

Morteza Sharifi led Iran with a game-high 15 points, while Amirhossein Esfandiar contributed 12. China's captain Jiang Chuan scored 11 points, with middle blocker Li Yongzhen just one point fewer.

In the opening set, China proved to be a challenging opponent, as Jiang's spike gave them an 18-16 lead, but Roberto Piazza's team leveled at 19-19, thanks to Sharifi's ace.

Ji Daoshuai's service error and Amin Esmaeilnezhad's effective attack put Iran ahead on 24-22, but China fought hard to the end and managed to tie at 24-24 with Ji and Wang Bin's efforts, before Iran capitalizing on Sharifi's attack and the opponents' error to seal the set 26-28.

China started strongly in the second set, as Peng Shikun's impressive block gave Vital Heynen's team a 5-2 lead. Iran's Eisa Naseri responded with two effective blocks, bringing the score to 9-9. Both teams exchanged points until Piazza's team scored four consecutive points to lead 19-15 and held on to 25-21 with Naseri's another effective block.

Led by Esfandiar and Sharifi, Iran dominated the third set en route to claim the victory.

Also on Thursday, host Poland lost to Cuba in four sets 22-25, 25-19, 25-21, 26-24. Outside hitter Marlon Yant Herrera scored 18 points for Cuba, while his counterpart Kewin Sasak contributed 11 for Poland. ■