Tehran, Iran, May 20, 2022 – Iran’s Shahdab Yazd claimed bronze medal at the 2022 Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship after 3-0 (25-20, 25-15, 25-22) demolition of Taraz VC in the third-place playoff clash at Azadi Hall on Friday.
Suffering a bitter 1-3 loss to Suntory Sunbirds from Japan in the do-or-die semifinals the previous day, Shahdab Yazd came up with their splendid form in this crucial match against Taraz VC, hoping to repeat their victory against the team they had already beaten 3-1 in the preliminary Pool B clash earlier.
Taraz VC made all their efforts to win this match to take revenge of their previous loss, but Shahdab Yazd remained offensively strong with the likes of the 208cm-tall powerful hitter Simon Robertlandy and left-hander Amin Esmaeilnezhad, while the Kazakh side were strengthened by Onolbek Kanybek Uulu, hard-attacking Vitaliy Vorivodin and Damir Akimov.
Both sides got off to a thrilling start to fight for the pole position. Simon and Donovan produced solid blocks to help Shahdab Yazd take the lead up to 17-14 and continued with their attack hits and powerful jump serves to win the set 25-20.
The second set turned out to be one-way traffic as Mahdi Mahdavi displayed his good skill in penetrating the Kazakhs defence with his spectacular attacks for the team’s commanding 22-12 lead. The strong home team made short work of the smaller-built rivals to win the lopsided battle 25-15.
Taraz VC still played cool under pressure in the third set, but the confident Iranians played with more consistency to take a narrow 23-20 lead before stretching it to 24-21, courtesy of their exceptional tactics including terrific jump serves and thundering cross-court attacks from Simon and efficient blocks by Amin Esmaeilnezhad and Reza Abedini. Shahdab Yazd clinched the set 25-22, match and bronze medal.
Simon Robertlandy led Shahdab Yazd with 18 points including 15 kills and 2 blocks, while Onolbek Kanybek Uulu was the only Kazakh player who scored double digits with 10 points for Taraz VC, nine of them from the attacks.
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