IRN M: Urmia swallow Paykan in the hell of Ghadir Arena to tie semifinal series, Sarmayeh in finals (VIDEO)

Urmia vs. Paykan

The team coached by Abbas Barghi had a stormy performance against fierce rivals Paykan in front of home crowd, leveling the score in the semifinal series to 1-1. In the first set, Abdolreza Alizadeh, the libero of Urmia, had a precise reception, while Mojtaba Mirzajanpour was making effective attacks. So, home team of Urmia got the set 25-22.

The second set was different as Paykan had 10-7 but faulty reception and unsuccessful attacks of their players suddenly turned the game. Farhad Piroutpour’s tip-over was exceptional, making 16-12 for the host team. Even a few successive substitutions (Nikola Kovačević, Saeid Mostafavand, Mostafa Sharifat…) did not help Paykan – scoreboard was showing 24-19 in favor of Urmia. Paykan players got a grip and brought the score to 24-23 by making targeted serves and consistent defense, but finally gave the set to their rival 25-23.

Local fans in “Ghadir Arena”, encouraged by previous developments, turned the gymnasium for Paykan players into pretty difficult floor to compete in. Reception of Paykan was far from being perfect while, on the other side, libero of Urmia, in cooperation with Arash Keshavarzi, was making perfect reception. Parviz Pezeshki was supplying Hamid Rezaei and Armin Tashakori with good balls and Urmia took the set 25-21, putting the guest team 3-0 behind. Paykan will host a decisive Game 3, in Tehran.

Sarmayeh Bank downed Saipa 3-1 (25-20, 25-22, 25-22, 28-30, 25-18), winning series 2-0, and can start to prepare themselves for confronting the winners of the above mentioned semifinal pair in the grand finale.

PLAY OFF – SEMIFINALS / SEMIFINAL 1

PLAY OFF – SEMIFINALS / SEMIFINAL 2

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