Iran, China to clash in final of Men’s AVC Cup

 Nakhon Pathom, Thailand, September 27, 2016 – Mighty Iran and a fired-up China set up a “Clash of the Titans” for Wednesday’s final of the SMM 5th AVC Cup for Men at Nakhon Pathom Gymnasium as the two unbeaten teams survived challenges from their rivals in the semifinals on Tuesday.

China had the edge as they overcame Chinese Taipei 3-0 (25-23, 34-32, 25-22) to set up a rematch of the 2012 final against the Iranians, who moved a step closer to capturing their third AVC Cup title by beating Japan 3-2 (25-21, 17-25, 25-20, 23-25, 15-11).

China, who lost to Iran in the 2010 final but avenged the loss by annihilating the Iranians in 2012, were led by the hard-hitting Ji Daoshuai, Liu Libin and Jiang Chuan against Chinese Taipei, who they beat in five sets in the preliminaries.

Chinese Taipei also had plenty of experienced players, most of them from the gold-winning Taichung Bank VC in last year’s Asian Men’s Club Championship, with devastating left-hander Wu Tsung-Hsuan at the helm.

Jiang Chuan scored a match-high 31 points for China, including 27 kills from 44 attempts. Liu Libin added 10 kills. Wu Tsung-Hsuan led Chinese Taipei with 14 points, all of them through his deadly attacks.

“Before the match, we never thought about the result,” China coach Li Mu commented after the match. …

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