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Iran ended the qualifying rounds on a positive note while China barely made the second round after a loss from Canada at the Men's Volleyball World Championship in Poland on Sunday.

Iran defeated Puerto Rico, who upset Italy Saturday three sets to one, in three straight sets 25-17, 25-22, 25-14 to end up in second place behind France in Pool D of the competition.

Even though their top player, Amir Ghafour was sidelined in the match, Iran's Shahram Mahmoudi took over in attacks with 12 points while Seyed Mousavi took charge in the blocking arena, scoring eight points.

This is Iran's best performance at the event that has not made it past the qualifying round in all of their previous participations.

Iran's blocking was instrumental in the game as they made a total of 16 points with Mousavi leading the pack.

"We worked hard during the World League for this World Championship and this is the result," said Iran coach Sloboan Kovac.

Iran defeated both top seeds in Pool D, USA and Italy, who ended up third and fourth place in the overall standings.

Meantime, China was demolished by Canada in their last game of the qualifying rounds 24-26, 25-27, 17-25 but still made enough points to end in fourth place in Pool C to advance in the next round.

Zhi Yuan and Jianjun Cui made a valiant effort for China, contributing a total of 33 points while John Gordon Perrin, Dallas Soonias and Nicholas Hoag combined for 43 points for the winning team.

China team captain Zhong Weijun admitted that their defense is lacking and needs to improve in order to be competitive in the tournament.

"Our major problem in this match was our defense," Weijun said. "We really have to play better in the next round."

Russia came out on top in Pool C followed by Canada and Bulgaria.

Teams that also made it in the next round are defending champions Brazil, Poland who won all of their matches in shut outs and Serbia whose only loss was from the host nation.

TagsZhi Yuan, Jianjun Cui, Zhong Weijun, Amir Ghafour, Shahram Mahmoudi, Seyed Mousavi