PUNE, India - Iran defeated the U.S. for the second time on Sunday to finish in seventh place in the 2009 FIVB Men’s Junior World Championship at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune, India.

The Iranians, who had beaten the U.S. in the second round, beat them again 3-1 (22-25, 25-17, 25-12, 25-18).
“This was a good and exciting match. This was our best match. The U.S. is a very good team and I believe that if we were both in different pools, we could have been in the top four. We both lost to Cuba and Brazil,” said Iran’s coach Mostafa Karkhaneh in the post-match news conference.
Iran’s Arash Kamalvand led all scorers with 17 points, including seven aces. Alireza Jadidi added 12 points in the victory, and teammate Farhad Ghaemi contributed 11 points.
Murphy Troy provided the U.S. with 16 points and Antonio Ciarelli added 13 points in the loss.
“Iran served very well and took us out of the match. We just did not get into our offense. When we were able to run the middle, we did well. For us, we are developing players for the senior team, and hopefully some of these players will have that chance to play at the next level. They can use this experience at the senior team. This is also a sad day as this is the last match this group will be together,” said the U.S. coach Shawn Patchell