CAVA Women’s Volleyball Championship:
Iran eases past Sri Lanka in straight sets
Iran secured a second successive victory at the CAVA Women’s Volleyball Championship, defeating Sri Lanka in straight sets (25-16, 25-13, 25-11) in Kathmandu, Nepal.
South Korean head coach Lee Do-hee’s side had opened its title defense with a comfortable 3-0 rout of Bangladesh on Friday.
A sterner test awaits the Iranian women in their final pool game today against Kazakhstan, which emerged victorious 3-1 when the two teams met at last year’s AVC Women’s Volleyball Cup.
Iran achieved a historic feat at last year’s CAVA event in Tashkent, capturing its maiden international women’s volleyball gold medal since the establishment of the national team in 1963, thanks to a straight-set victory over host Uzbekistan in the final.
This year’s tournament marks the beginning of a congested international calendar for the Iranian women, who are also set to compete at the AVC Women’s Nations Cup — starting June 6 in Candon, Philippines — where they have been drawn alongside defending champion Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and Lebanon in the same group.
That campaign will be followed by September’s Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games in Japan, which will mark Iran’s first women’s volleyball appearance at the multi-sport event since the 1974 edition on home soil.