Iran recorded its first victory in day three of the men’s volleyball tournament at Rio 2016 Olympic Games with a straight-set decision 3-0 (25-21, 31-29, 25-16) over Cuba in a match between winless teams of Pool B on Thursday morning.

Iran (1-2) outclassed Cuba in the blocking category 13-3 and committed 16 unforced errors compared to 24 by the losers.

Seyed Mousavi, who collected eight blocks in the loss to Poland in five sets on Tuesday, came back to record five more among his 12 points against Cuba. 

Shahram Mahmoudi enjoyed a good overall performance with 19 points, including three blocks, to lead the Iranian side, and Adel Gholami chipped in with 11, including three blocks, in the victory.

Miguel Lopez finished as the Cuban top scorer with 15 points, all in attacks, and Osniel Melgarejo added 14 in the loss.

It was a battled first set up to 16-16 when Mahmoudi gave Iran the lead with a big spike. Cuba came within one point again at 21-20 with the attack of Lopez, but Iran recovered to win 25-21 with another spike by Mahmoudi.

Two consecutive big spikes by Lopez evened the score at 21-21 in the second set to start a long battle until Iran prevailed 31-29 with a spike by Mahmoudi followed by the attack out of bounds by Lopez.

Teams battle fairly evenly until halfway when Iran broke away and claimed the straight set victory with the third set coming to an end at 25/16 with one ace by Gholami.

(Source: FIVB)