Lausanne, Switzerland, May 16, 2018 - After both suffered losses in their opening matches to USA and Turkey respectively, Poland and Italy are looking to score their first FIVB Volleyball Nations League win Wednesday in Lincoln, USA. Italy enjoy a wide lead in their head-to-head record, having scored eleven wins to Poland's three.
Head-to-Head
• Poland and Italy have met 14 times in major world level competitions with Poland winning three and Italy 11 times.
• World level major competitions are: Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cup, World Grand Prix and Grand Champions Cup.
• Italy have won each of their last seven major world level encounters with Poland, since a 3-0 defeat in the final round of the 2007 World Grand Prix.
• Their most recent major world level encounters came at the 2012 World Grand Prix. Italy won both preliminary round encounters, 3-1 and 3-2.
• At the European Championships, Italy have won six of their last seven matches versus Poland. The only exception came in the final in 2005, when Poland won 3-1 and collected their second trophy in the tournament after 2003.
Poland
• Poland lost their first Nations League match: 3-1 against hosts United States.
• The last time Poland started a major world level competition with consecutive defeats was at the 2013 World Grand Prix (lost first three matches).
• The last time Poland suffered consecutive defeats at a major world level competition was at the 2014 World Grand Prix: five consecutive defeats.
• Poland scored eight points from serves in the defeat against USA, twice as many as their opponents.
• Malwina Smarzek scored 23 points in the defeat against USA, at least 10 points more than any other Polish player.
Italy
• Italy lost in straight sets against Turkey in their first match of this Nations League campaign.
• The last time Italy suffered consecutive straight-sets defeats at major world level was at the 2016 Olympic Games, where Italy lost their first three matches 3-0 (v Serbia, China and Netherlands).
• Italy last lost successive major world level matches in their opening two matches of the 2017 World Grand Prix: 3-1 v China and 3-0 v United States. Italy still went on to reach the final, which they lost to Brazil.
• Anastasia Guerra (13 points) was the only player to score more than 10 points for Italy in the 3-0 defeat against Turkey.