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Volleyball 16/10/2018

Semifinalists Italy and Serbia battle for top spot in Pool G

Nagoya, Japan, October 16, 2018 - With secured semifinals slots at the 2018 FIVB Women's World Championship, Italy and Serbia meet in Nippon Gaishi Hall on Tuesday to determine the team that takes the favoured spot in Pool G.

Head-to-Head

· Italy and Serbia (including as Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro) meet for the fifth time at the World Championship. Italy won only one of the previous four encounters. Serbia won on four occasions.
· These nations most recently met at the World Championship in 2010, when Italy beat Serbia 3-0 in the 5th-8th place classification round (25-20, 25-15, 25-22).
· Serbia's last victory over Italy at the World Championship was a straight-set win in the 2006 third-place decider (25-22, 25-22, 25-21).
· Last June, Italy beat Serbia in five sets in the Nations League, in these nations' most recent meeting in a major world level competition (Nations League, Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cup, World Grand Prix and Grand Champions Cup).
· In 2007, Italy won their first European Championships title after beating Serbia in straight sets in the final. They won their second and most recent European title in 2009.

Italy

·Italy beat hosts Japan 3-2 in the third round on Monday to keep their unbeaten status at the 2018 World Championship (W10-L0) and to qualify for the semifinals.
· Italy are the only side still unbeaten at the 2018 World Championship. In 2010, Russia (W10-L0) were the last nation to win all their matches en route to their World Championship title.
· Italy's 10-match winning run is already their longest unbeaten run in World Championship history.
· In 2014, Brazil set a new record for most victories at a single World Championship: 12. USA won 11 matches in the 2014 edition.
· Paola Ogechi Egonu scored a match-high 36 points in the 3-2 win over Japan. Her 218 total points make her top scorer at the 2018 World Championship.
· Egonu was Italy's top scorer in nine of Italy's 10 matches at the 2018 World Championship.
· Anna Danesi has scored 32 points from blocks in this tournament, more than any other player.

Serbia

· On Sunday, Serbia defeated hosts Japan 3-0 in their opening third round fixture. On Monday, opponents Italy also beat Japan (3-2) which meant that both nations have secured a place in the semifinals.
· Serbia have reached the semifinals at a World Championship for the second time after 2006. They then lost against Brazil in the semis but claimed a bronze medal by defeating Italy 3-0 in the third-place decider.
· Serbia started the 2018 World Championship with seven consecutive 3-0 victories, before losing against both Japan (3-1) and Netherlands (3-0) in the second round.
· Thirteen of Serbia's last 14 World Championship matches have finished in straight sets (W10-L4), with the only exception in that run the 3-1 defeat against Japan on 10 October.
· Serbia have played 31 sets this World Championship, fewer than any other nation in the Final Six. China and opponents Italy have both played 35 sets in the tournament.
· Brankica Mihajlovic (119) and Tijana Boškovic (109) have both scored 100+ points this tournament. Boškovic scored a match-high 24 points in the 3-0 win over Japan.
· Boškovic (55.49%) has the highest success rate of spikes at the 2018 World Championship (101 points from 182 attempts).

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