Volleyball Nations League:
Iran beaten by Bulgaria in thrilling five-setter
Bulgaria came from behind twice to beat Iran in a five-set thriller (21-25, 25-21, 22-25, 25-22, 15-11) in Week 3 of the Volleyball Nations League in Anaheim, California, on Thursday.
An eighth defeat in 10 outings means Iran will surely miss out on a place in the VNL Finals, having progressed to the quarterfinals last year.
Bulgarian Asparuh Asparuhov stole the show for the European side with a game-high 23 points, while his fellow outside-hitter Martin Atanasov chipped in 18 – including a couple of aces.
Opposite spiker Ali Hajipour topped the scoring for Iran with 17 points – three aces – followed by team captain Seyyed Mohammad Mousavi, (13 points, seven blocks), and Morteza Sharifi, who finished on 10 points.
Iran was again without head coach Behrouz Ataei as well as prolific opposite Amin Esmaeilnejad, first-choice setter Mohammad-Taher Vadi, and Arman Salehi – after all four were denied an entry visa by the US Embassy in Ankara.
The FIVB Board of Administration’s official announcement on Thursday – in the face of the United States’ controversial decision – confirmed that “no ranking points will be applied to Iran nor their opponents” during the final week of the preliminary round.
Teams’ status in the FIVB Men’s World Ranking will play a decisive part in the qualification process for next year’s Paris Olympics.
Having suffered a straight-set defeat against reigning Olympic champion France in the final-week opener, Iran will take on Argentina tonight before finishing its VNL campaign against Cuba a day later.
Iran got off to disappointing start in this year’s event, falling to a 3-0 defeat against Asian rival Japan on the first day of Week 1 in Nagoya, before giving away a two-set lead to leave the court empty-handed against Poland.
Ataei’s men then bounced back to beat China in four sets but finished the visit to Japan with a straight-set loss to Slovenia.
The second week started with a 3-0 victory over Germany for Iran, before straight-set defeats against reigning world champion Italy and USA – last year’s VNL runner-up – were followed by a 3-2 loss to the Netherlands in Rotterdam.
Elsewhere in Pool 5, Argentina eased to victory over Germany in three sets (25-23 , 25-18, 25-17), while Serbia rallied past Cuba in five sets (19-25, 25-23, 25-21, 22-25, 15-11).
The top seven of the 16-team table will join host Poland in the VNL Finals – starting with the last-eight round on July 19 in Gdansk.