Zaytsev inspires Italy to straight-sets win over Iran

June 3, 2018 - 4:29

Ivan Zaytsev surged back to top form as Italy rebounded from their first Volleyball Nations League defeat to sink Iran 3-0 (25-23, 25-18, 25-20) early Sunday.

Zaytsev, the prolific and hard-hitting Italian wing spiker, had struggled in his team’s loss to Canada a day earlier but was back to his best in racking up 14 attacking points to comfortably see off Iran’s challenge.

 Osmany Juantorena was strong and consistent again and contributed 11 points of his own to ensured Italy’s cruised to their fourth win after five games of VNL action.

 Milad Ebadipour was firing again for Iran and came up with 11 total points, yet the team was unable to conjure another positive result to follow on from its previous victory over host nation Argentina.

Iran will face Canada late Sunday.

Iran earned one win over Australia in Week 1 and lost to France and Japan.

Igor Kolakovic’s men opened the Week 2 with a narrow 3-2 win over host Argentina on Saturday.