Iran names women’s volleyball roster for Islamic Solidarity Games
Iran head coach Lee Do-hee named a provisional 15-player squad for the women’s volleyball competition at the upcoming Islamic Solidarity Games – starting November 7 in Riyadh.
Iranian girls will head to the multi-sport event fresh off a historic title-winning campaign at the CAVA Women’s Volleyball Championship in Uzbekistan earlier in October –captured a maiden international gold for Iranian women’s volleyball since the first national team was established in 1963.
The triumph rounded off an emphatic run for the Iranian girls, who did not concede a single set throughout the tournament, breezing past Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and the host nation in the league phase.
Fatemeh Khalili, the Most Valuable Player at the CAVA tournament, was joined by middle-blocker Reihaneh Karimi and opposite-spiker Aytak Salamat in the CAVA Dream Team, and the trio will again headline the Iranian squad in the Saudi capital.
Iran settled for a runner-up finish in the previous edition of the Games in Konya 2021 after a straight-set defeat against host and women’s volleyball powerhouse Turkey in the final.
The following is Iran’s full squad:
Aytak Salamat, Zahra Karimi, Elaheh Poursaleh, Masoumeh Qadami, Ghazaleh Bostan, Sepinoud Dastbarjan, Zahra Moghani, Kimia Kiani, Reihaneh Karimi, Fatemeh Khalili, Zahra Salehi, Negar Hashemi, Shaqayeq Hassankhani, Shabnam Alikhani, and Soudabeh Baqerpour