Italy overcome Serbia and keep moving up

Reigning world champions Italy continue to climb the Volleyball Nations League 2023 standings as the Europeans ended Friday, the fourth day of competition in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in fifth place.

The most recent step in their campaign was a 3-0 (25-11, 25-21, 25-20) win over continental rivals Serbia. With the result, the Italians, who dropped their first two matches in the tournament, are now in a five-match unbeaten run in the event.

• Watch Volleyball Nations League 2023 live on VBTV

Step by step, the team coached by Ferdinando De Giorgi seems to be getting back to the form that took them to the top of the podium at the 2022 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship.

Against the Serbians, world champions Yuri Romanò and Roberto Russo were among the most productive Italian players. The 25-year-old opposite was the Italian top scorer with 15 points (13 kills, two aces) while the 26-year-old middle blocker had a very complete performance, getting to 13 points with five kills, three aces and five blocks.

“I’m very happy about the win,” Russo commented. “All of us played really well and I hope we can play on the same way in our next match. We’re playing for the win in every match and it’s great to see that we’ve been performing that well in such an important moment of the VNL.”

Serbia had three players scoring in double digits, with outside hitter Pavle Peric tallying 15 points (all in kills), opposite Bozidar Vucicevic adding 12 (ten kills, two blocks) and outside hitter Miran Kujundžić contributing another ten (all in kills).

Except for kills, where the Serbians were the most effective with 41 points to 37, the Italians dominated every other aspect of the match, getting more blocks (13 to five), aces (five to one) and points from opponent errors (20 to five).

Volleyball Nations League 2023: full schedule and results

In the first match of the day in Rotterdam, the United States also had a dominant performance, overcoming Iran 3-0 (25-22, 25-18, 25-23). Opposite Matt Anderson and middle blocker Taylor Averill led the American victory with 13 points each, but Iranian opposite Amin Esmaeilnezhad was the match’s top scorer with 16.

Saturday’s match schedule in Rotterdam will feature three matches. Poland and the United States will open the day at 13:00 local time (11:00 UTC), the Netherlands and Iran will follow at 17:00 local time (15:00 UTC) and China and Germany will conclude the day at 20:30 local time (18:30 UTC).

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