Dubai, United Arab Emirates, August 26, 2015 – World Junior No. 13 Cuba took advantage of Iran's 35 unforced errors to clinch a 3-1 win (33-31, 25-23, 15-25, 26-24) in Pool A of 2015 Men's U23 World Championship at Al Nasr Hall in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Wednesday.
Cuba improved their win- loss ratio to 3-0 to maintain their winning streak, while Iran drop to 2-1.
Mestre Uriarte topped the scorers with 23 points for Cuba while Javad Huseinabadi was the best scorer for Iran with 20 points.
Iran had no answers to the solid game of their opponents. Cuba only allowed a few attacking maneuvers as they covered all attacking points at the net and on the floor. However, the main reason for Cuba's win were the 35 mistakes Iran.
Match started with a lot motivations from the Cubans as they keep their momentum at least a point ahead of their opponents. Maestre Uriarte led the team with his unstoppable hits aided by Gavilan Afonso to reach to 8-7 and 16-15 at the TTOs. Iran kept their pace with different actions from Javad Husseinabadi until they had 2 set points before the Cubans catch the winning point at 33-31.
The resurgent Cubans maintained the same rhythm in the second set making a wider point deficit ahead of the Iranians using also their unforced errors in service and defence to win the second set 25-23 to widen their lead 2-0.
Iran extracted all the power in the third set as they used the combinations of their setter Mostafa Bagheri to keep a wide point deficit ahead of the Cubans reached 16-9 at the 2nd TTO. The outside hitter Alireza Nasr aided his team to continue till they won the set widely 25-15.
Again the fourth set went point by point with a slim advantage for Iran till 22-20, when the Cubans extracted all the power to win the thrilling set 26-24 and the match 3-1.