AVC Boy’s U19 Champ; Korea beat Iran in tie-breaker

Fired-up Korea, powered by ace spiker Im Donghyeok, repeatedly stunned defending and seven-time champions Iran in hard-fought five-set thriller 25-19 25-22 23-25 16-25 15-9 in the thrilling semi-final clash to go up against unbeaten Japan in the final showdown.

Im Donghyeok scored a match-high 41 points including 39 kills from 73 attempts, while Morteza Sharifi topscored with 30 points for Iran including 23 kills, 4 stuff blocks and 3 ace serves. Ali Tabari contributed 18 attack hits.

After the match, Korea’s team manager Park Wongil said, “It was a tough match. For the first and second sets, our team did very well. It seemed like our team could not do what they had to do in the third and fourth sets. In the third set in particular, Iran led 5-0 and I think it was because our team members were mentally broken. In the fifth set, we led all the ways and we eventually won it. We next take on Japan. We have yet played the Japanese, but they beat China in straight sets. It must be a tough match out there against Japan. We will do our best.”

On Wednesday, the final day of the competition, hosts Myanmar play Australia in the 7th-8th place playoff, Thailand and Chinese Taipei will battle it out for the 5^th position. China will challenge Iran in the third-place playoff and Japan will go up against Korea in the final showdown.