Tehran, Iran, February 23, 2021 – Sirjan Foulad and Sepahan Foulad got their playoffs campaign in the Iran Men’s Volleyball Super League off to brilliant starts following their hard-fought five-set wins on the opening day at Federation Hall, iranvolleyball.com reported on Tuesday.
Top eight teams after the 30-week preliminary round of the Iran’s top-flight professional League had secured their berths in the Playoffs round, which is being held from February 23 to 26.
Those eight teams comprised Sepahan Foulad, Urmia Shahrdari, (21 W, 5 L), Yazd Shahdab (21 W, 5 L), Sirjan Foulad (20 W, 6 L), Tehran Saipa (18 W, 8 L), Amol Haraz Labaniat (18 W, 8 L), Gonbad Shahrdari (13 W, 13 L) and Varamin Shahrdari (12 W, 14 L).
On the first day of the highly-anticipated encounters, Sirjan Foulad and Sepahan Foulad survived sturdy challenges to beat their tough rivals in gruelling five-setter.
The first match of the day saw Sirjan Foulad and Tehran Saipa, the teams ranked fourth and fifth in the preliminaries, fight for almost three hours. Sirjan Foulad, which suffered similar 1-3 loss to Tehran Saipa in both matches in Week 12 and 21, regained the lost pride to stun the same opponents with fantastic comeback five-set win 23-25, 25-18, 25-27, 25-20, 15-12.
In the second encounter, preliminary-round pacesetters Sepahan Foulad, which claimed 22 wins against four losses, had been tipped to topple Varamin Shahrdari as they had already beaten the rivals twice in the preliminaries.
However, Varamin Shahrdari, which performed brilliantly to capture the 2019 Asian Men’s Club Championship in Chinese Taipei, turned a tough nut to crack against Sepahan Foulad, forcing the strong rivals to play a do-or-die tiebreaker, but unfortunately lost the close battle. Sepahan Foulad sealed the hard-fought win 25-22, 23-25, 26-24, 20-25, 15-13.
The next four teams in the playoffs will be in action on Wednesday, Day 2 in the away round.
Each team will have to play the other side in home-and-away matches. Winning both matches will secure the team a berth in the Final Four. However, if both teams share one win apiece, the third match will be held on February 27-28 in the best-of-three format to decide the winning team.
DAY 1 RESULTS
Away matches
Sirjan Foulad b Tehran Saipa 3-2 (23-25, 25-18, 25-27, 25-20, 15-12)
Sepahan Foulad b Varamin Shahrdari 3-2 (25-22, 23-25, 26-24, 20-25, 15-13)
DAY 2 MATCH SCHEDULE
Away matches
10:30 GMT– Yazd Shahdab v Amol Labaniat
13:30 GMT – Urmia Shahrdari v Gonbad Shahrdari
Live matches can be watched via https://www.aparat.com/irivf/live
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