AVC Men’s Club Champs/ Sarmayeh Bank Cracks China’s Wall

Ninh Binh, Vietnam, July 2, 2017 – Reigning champions Sarmayeh Bank from Iran proved a cut above Beijing Baic Motor, pulling off a dramatic 3-1 (25-14, 19-25, 25-18, 25-15) win in their first playoff Pool F match at the round of the last eight teams at the SMM 2017 Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship at the Ninh Binh Gymnasium on Sunday.

Led by Iran national players Farhad Ghaemi and Milad Ebaddipour, who earlier played in the World League and veteran Shahram Mahmoud, title-hotshots Samaryeh Bank started well for an initial 6-3 lead in the opening set. Terrific jump serves from Milad helped put the Iranians in commanding 20-11 lead as Beijing Baic Motor struggled with the first ball reception. Samaryeh Bank stretched it to 24-14 before Fahad astonished the rivals with an effective mid-court drop for the Iranians’ 25-14 win in the comfortable set.

Conceding one set, the Chinese side did not surrender easily as they put up a brave fight to narrow the gap 6-4 before the Sarmayeh Bank’s head coach Mostafa Karkhaneh called a time out to break his opponents’ game. The Chinese club capitalised the Iranian errors to win the second set 25-19. However, Samaryeh Bank showed complete dominance in the next two sets to win 25-18, 25-15 and match.

Shahram Mahmoudi scored a team-high 17 points from15 spikes and 2 blocks, while Milad Ebadipour Gharah and Mohammed Mousavi Eraghi Seyed added 14 points apiece for Sarmayeh Bank. Yin Jie led Beijing Baic Motor with 15 points.

“This was our second match of the tournament and we have more expectation for the team in this championship. We are improving day by day. Beijing Baic Motor are a strong team with good physical strength. I am very happy that we were able to beat them,” said Samayeh Bank’s head coach Mostafa Karkhaneh after the match .

“We prepared seriously for two months to defend our title in this tournament. We are a good team with talented players. I am sure that we can go far in this tournament. However, we still have to fight hard against the other strong teams from Qatar, Japan and Kazakhstan. We will do ur best in this tournament,” he added.