Iran aiming for improved finish at Asian U18 volleyball meet
The Iranian team departed for Thailand on Thursday ahead of the Asian Girls’ U18 Volleyball Championship, which gets underway in Nakhon Ratchasima on Wednesday.
Making its ninth appearance at the tournament, Iran will open its Pool C campaign against the Philippines on the opening day in a rematch of the group-stage meeting from the previous edition, which the Iranians won in straight sets.
Iran will face Indonesia in its second outing on Thursday before head coach Akram Qahermani’s side takes on record nine-time champion Japan in its toughest group-stage test the following day.
Iran and Japan also met at the 2024 tournament, with the latter claiming a straight-set victory before advancing all the way to the final, where it lost to China in straight sets.
Iran recorded its best-ever finish at the tournament in 2024, placing sixth after a 3-0 defeat to South Korea. However, the team will look to build on last year’s Asian Youth Games gold medal in Manama as it targets an improved finish this time around.
“We’ve carried out a full analysis of our preliminary-round opponents and are in good shape ahead of our matches against them,” Iran captain Aida Baqernia, who was part of the gold medal-winning squad in Manama, said after the team’s final training session in Tehran this week.
The young setter added that the Iranian senior women’s national team’s second successive CAVA Championship title last month “has given us extra motivation for the tournament, and I hope we can continue that successful run.”
Joining Baqernia in Iran’s Under-18 squad are Saina Bahri-Sefidi, Hadis Arfa’-Rafiei, Sana Naqipour, Setayesh Nasr-Esfahani, Maria Mohammadi, Yekta Kasiri, Elina Latifinia, Fatemeh Homayoun, Melina Ghofrani, Sama Yahyapour, Elena Homayounirad, Asal Valipour and Tara Shakki.
The top two teams from each of the four pools in Nakhon Ratchasima will advance to the quarterfinals, while the remaining sides will compete in the 9th-16th place classification matches.
Host Thailand – champion in 2014 and a semifinalist in the previous edition on home soil – has been drawn in Pool A alongside Uzbekistan, Australia and Mongolia. Five-time champion China headlines Pool B, which also features Kazakhstan, Hong Kong and Kyrgyzstan.
Bronze medalist in 2024, Chinese Taipei headlines Pool D, where it will face South Korea, India and Vietnam.