USA lost to Iran in five sets

TOKYO, Japan, November 23, 2013 - Iran scored a dramatic five-set victory over the United States 28-26, 19-25, 19-25, 27-25, 18-16 in their round-robin match at the World Grand Champions Cup on Saturday.

The result left both teams with a 2-2 record. The contest marked the first meeting ever between the countries in the World Grand Champions Cup and only third overall. It is the first time Iran has beaten the U.S. in an FIVB competition.

Mojtaba Mirzajanpour led Iran with 13 points in the triumph. Shahram Mahmoudi and Farhad Ghaemi added 11 each. Matthew Anderson scored a match-high 25 points for the U.S. in the loss. William Priddy and Maxwell Holt contributed 18 apiece.

Also, Russia denied Brazil a chance to clinch the gold medal with a five-set (20-25, 22-25, 25-21, 25-17, 15-9) victory on Saturday. The result left both teams with 3-1 records in what was a rematch of the 2012 Olympic final won by Russia in similar fashion.

Dmitriy Ilinykh paced Russia with 21 points, while Dmitriy Muserskiy added 20. Wallace De Souza led Brazil with 21. Ricardo Lucarelli contributed 14.

Finally, Italy downed Japan in straight sets (25-16, 25-21, 25-21). The result gives Italy a 2-2 mark, while Japan remains winless at 0-4 heading into the final day of the competition.

Ivan Zaytsev was the top scorer for Italy with 13 points. Filippo Lanza and Jiri Kovar chipped in with 11 each. Yu Koshikawa had eight points for Japan in the loss.