The national volleyball team beat Bulgaria at home 3-1 to enjoy the second domestic win in the series of Volleyball Nations League on Saturday.
However, the team lost one set at the Azadi Sports Complex. Captain Marouf was of the opinion that they could have won the game in three straight sets, IRNA reported.
“We had the chance to win them (Bulgaria) in three straight sets,” said Marouf. “But few mistakes in the end of the third set gave the Bulgarians the set point and extended the game to the fourth set.”
He said the game against Bulgaria was of higher quality compared to the clash with South Korea that ended 3-1 on Friday.
The coach Igor Kolakovic was satisfied with the performance of his team.
Two Iranian players stormed into the game and both had the same share of points. Saman Faezi made 16 points benefiting from 13 spikes and three successful defenses.
Also Morteza Sharifi flied over the net to make 12 spikes to the Bulgarian ground and make two successful defenses as well as two service points.
Before playing Germany on Sunday night, Iran was ranked 10th in the VNL table among 16 teams which means it has bid farewell to the main competitions. Six countries namely Russia, Brazil, the US, Serbia, Poland, and France have qualified for the next round of the competitions.
The 2018 FIVB Volleyball Men’s Nations League is the inaugural edition of the FIVB tournament, a new annual men’s international volleyball competition contested by 16 national teams that replaced the former World League in the international calendar.
The final round will start in Villeneuve-d’Ascq, Lille metropolitan area, France, on July 8.
