In-form Australia registered their first victory in the 2021 FIVB Men’s Volleyball Nations League in Rimini, Italy with a hard-fought five-set triumph over Asian champions Iran in exhausting 146 minutes on Tuesday.
In a rematch of the 2019 Asian Championship final showdown, Australia came into this all-Asians battle against Iran on a nine-game losing streak, but made a perfect start in the match to surge to a commanding 2-0 (25-23, 25-22) lead, thanks to their excellent teamwork and powerful attacks from Trent O’Dea and Luke Smith.
Iran hit back spectacularly to take the next two sets 25-23, 25-18, forcing a tie-breaker to determine the eventual winners. However, Australia remained in top form to foil the tough rivals’ determined fightback challenge and capture the close set 15-12 and 3-2 thriller.
Trent O’Dea was the top scorer of Australia with 17 points, while Beau Graham added 15. Bardia Saadat led Iran with 16 points and Mohammad Mousavi Eraghi Seyed assisted with 14.
Iran’s Mir Saeid Marouflakrani said at the virtual Mixed Zone: “Actually we didn’t start so bad. We started well in the first set, but we gave them a chance to come back into the game to play good volleyball. I think that in sport sometimes you have good and bad days and today was our bad day. We need to focus on our next games and forget what happened today on the court.
“I can’t see anything positive on our game today, but there are many things that we have to focus on and to learn from this game. We have to always give 100% in every game, but we have to forget about this one. It was our bad day and we were not able to play volleyball.”
Nehemiah Mote of Australia said: “Winning in five is symbolic of all the effort we have been putting in day by day from the players to staff. Iran came back, but we were able to bring it back in the last set. We will enjoy this victory very much. In the third set it was 21-22 and we had a perfect reception and we should have ended it. That gave Iran momentum and a bit of confidence and we were very unfortunate not to win this set. But to lose the third set and then come back, hold on and win in five is a testament to the attitude of everyone in the Australian jersey.”
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