AVC Women’s Nations Cup:
Iran’s Poursaleh rues failure to execute game plan after ‘bitter’ opener
Iran’s Elaheh Poursaleh lamented her team’s failure to follow the coaching staff’s instructions after an opening-day defeat to Indonesia at the AVC Women’s Nations Cup in Candon, Philippines, on Saturday.
The prolific opposite scored a joint match-high 20 points but could not prevent Iran, which arrived at the tournament fresh from winning last week’s CAVA Championship title, from slipping to a 3-1 defeat (25-15, 21-25, 25-21, 25-22) in Pool B.
“It was a bitter loss. It wasn’t our day,” Poursaleh said after the match.
“For much of the match, we failed to do what we were asked to do by the coaching staff.
“We’ll have to make up for this defeat in the next matches, and that’s exactly what we’re determined to do.”
Iran will return to action at Candon City Arena against Kazakhstan on Sunday in a repeat of the two meetings between the sides at the CAVA Championship in Kathmandu, including the final, both of which Iran won.
“We recently beat Kazakhstan twice, but we still have to remain fully focused against them. I just hope we can finish in the top two of the group and reach the semifinals,” added the 23-year-old.
Iran head coach Lee Do-hee, meanwhile, attributed the defeat to her players being “under a lot of stress throughout the match.”
“Because of that stress, they were unable to move freely and show their true capabilities. We need to overcome this issue. The larger the venue, the more nervous the players seem to become, and this is something that requires more work to address,” said the South Korean.
“Throughout the match, I kept reminding them that it was just a match and that they shouldn’t be nervous, but we were unable to change the situation.
“It’s really unfortunate that we lost today. It was a match we absolutely should have won, but we let the result slip away and put ourselves in a difficult position. Now we must win our remaining matches.”
Iran captain Shabnam Alikhani echoed her coach’s assessment.
“The result was very important for us, and that created a great deal of psychological pressure on the players. I don’t think we were prepared to deal with that challenge,” she said.
The veteran setter nevertheless urged her teammates to bounce back and show their “true strength” as they pursue their “ambitious goal” at the tournament.
“Right now, we are not in a good place mentally, but we will try to regain our confidence and improve the team’s psychological state so that we are ready for the upcoming matches,” she said.
“We must win all of our remaining preliminary-round matches to advance to the semifinals as the second-placed team in the group. It will be a very difficult task, but we are here with a very important and ambitious goal. I hope we can compete at full strength in the upcoming matches and once again show the true power of the Iranian team, just as we did in Nepal.”
Iran will follow the Kazakhstan match with an encounter against Lebanon on Tuesday before taking on defending champion Vietnam on Thursday.
On the final day of the preliminary phase, Iran, which finished sixth in the previous edition, will face Hong Kong on Friday.
Elsewhere on the opening day of the tournament, Vietnam began its title defense with a comfortable straight-sets victory over Lebanon, while Kazakhstan came from behind to defeat Hong Kong in four sets.
In Pool A, the Philippines made a winning start on home soil with a straight-sets victory over Uzbekistan, with South Korea defeating Kyrgyzstan by the same score later on Saturday.