Iran earned their second successive win at the Asian Women’s U23 Volleyball Championship on Monday.

The Iranian team defeated New Zealand in straight sets 3-0 (28-26, 25-22, 25-20) at the Mall Nakhon Ratchasima’s MCC Hall.

The Iranians, who stormed past Malaysia in straight sets in their opening match the on Sunday, booked a spot at the round of the last eight teams.

Fatemeh Amini scored 15 points for Iran including 12 attacks and 3 aces, while Farnaz Saei Esfahani added 10 points.

 Alice Zeimann collected 17 points for New Zealand including 11 kills and 5 ace serves.

“New Zealand played a good match against us. I gave them the thumbs up for the good fight. They caused us some problems, but fortunately we won. We are very happy to win this match and move up to the round of last eight teams to play both Japan and Vietnam,” Iran coach Sima Sedighi said.  

“Certainly, it is going to be very tough for us. We will have to analyze their games and hope we will have a good result,” she added.

Iran will meet Vietnam on Tuesday and face powerhouse Japan on Wednesday.

The 2017 Asian Women's U23 Volleyball Championship is a biennial international volleyball tournament organized by the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) with Thailand Volleyball Association (TVA).

The tournament, which is being held from May 13 to 21, serves as the Asian qualification tournament for the 2017 FIVB Volleyball Women’s U23 World Championship in Slovenia from September 10 to 17. Only top two teams from the Asian meet will make the cut for the World Championship.