TEHRAN – Iran overpowered Russia in three sets in the third match of week three of the 2019 Volleyball Nations League on Sunday.

Team Melli, who had defeated Canada (3-0) and Poland (3-2) in their first two matches, beat the defending champions in straight sets (25-20, 26-24, 25-23) at the Ghadir Hall in Urmia, West Azarbaijan province.

Iran extended their winning run at the third competition week of the men’s 2019 FIVB Volleyball Nations League to eight matches as Igor Kolakovic’s team had already seized seven wins against Italy, Germany, China, Argentina, Japan, Canada and Poland.

Iran just lost to Brazil 3-2 in week 2.

Amir Ghafour was Iran's top scorer with 17.

The competition is being held between May and July 2019 and the final round will take place in the Credit Union 1 Arena, Chicago, United States.

 This is the first edition of the World League or the Nations League to have the Final Round hosted in North America.

The 16 teams compete in a round-robin format with every core team hosting a pool at least once. The teams are divided into four pools of four teams at each week and compete five weeks long, for 120 matches. The top five teams after the preliminary round join the hosts of the final round to compete in the final round.

Reporting by Masoud Hossein