News / Sports

Iran suffers defeat against Hong Kong in Asian Women’s U23 Volleyball Championship

Saturday, 20 May 2017 9:49 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 21 May 2017 2:12 AM ]

This photo shows a view of the 5th-8th playoff match of the second edition of Asian Women’s U23 Volleyball Championship between Iran (players in black) and Hong Kong at the Mall Korat MCC Hall, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, on May 20, 2017.

The Iran women’s national under-23 volleyball team has suffered a bitter defeat at the second edition of Asian Women’s U23 Volleyball Championship in Thailand, going to Hong Kong.

On Saturday, Hong Kong power past Iran with a convincing straight-set 25-14, 25-22 and 25-18 victory at a 5th-8th playoff match at the Mall Korat MCC Hall in the northeastern Thai city of Nakhon Ratchasima.

Chim Wing Lam scored a match-high 17 points for Hong Kong, consisting of 13 kills from 44 attempts, 2 blocks and 2 ace serves. Koo Yung Yung added 9 points as well.

Mona Ashofteh led Iran with only 9 points, all from her destructive spikes.

“I think my team played a stable performance today. Iran are very strong team with tall players. They made many unforced errors, so we took advantage of their mistakes to win this match. Today we also served and counter-attacked pretty well,” Hong Kong’s head coach Cheung King Fai said.

“Tomorrow (Sunday), we will play either Kazakhstan or Malaysia. We played Kazakhstan before, but in that match our performance was not good. Hopefully we can match them if we have to take on the Kazakhs again. For Malaysia, they are a good team with tall and good attackers. I think both teams are not easy to play, so we have to try our best. Hopefully, the fifth position can be within our reach,” he added.

The young Iranian sportswomen will take on Malaysian athletes in the seventh place match of the tournament on Sunday.

The second edition of Asian Women’s U23 Volleyball Championship started in Thailand on May 13, and will finish on May 21, 2017.

The tournament serves as the Asian qualification tournament for the 2017 FIVB Volleyball Women's U23 World Championship.

The tournament will be hosted by Slovenia in the cities of Ljubljana and Maribor from August 27 to September 3, 2017. A total of 12 teams are expected to compete.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk