Lausanne, Switzerland, June 22, 2018 - Russia opened Week 5 of the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Nations League with a 3-0 win over Italy in Modena - their fourth straight-set win in a row - and now aim at their fifth. With their win over Italy Russia punched their ticket to the Final Six, as had USA done earlier in the day after picking up two points in their five-set defeat to France.
Head-to-Head
• Russia's 3-2 win against the United States at the World League in 2017 ended a run of eight successive defeats against USA at world major level tournaments.
• World level major competitions are: the VNL, Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cup, World League and Grand Champions Cup.
• Since the start of 2014, USA have won 11 of the 13 matches against Russia, with six of these wins coming in straight sets.
• Russia can claim consecutive wins against USA for the first time since 2012-2013 at the Olympic Games and Grand Champions Cup.
United States
• The United States suffered their third VNL defeat, as they lost 3-2 against France on Friday.
• Their other defeats came against Brazil (3-2) and Germany (3-0), those defeats came in successive matches.
• United States have now played four five-setters (W2-L2) in this tournament. Only in the World League in 1993 (W2-L3) and 2014 (W4-L1) did they have more five-setters in a world level major competition.
• Three players scored 20+ points in the match against France, with two playing for the United States: Matt Anderson (23) and Aaron Russell (21), France's Stephen Boyer scored 21 points as well.
Russia
• Russia beat Italy 3-0 on Friday. This was their fourth straight three-setter in a row.
• Russia can win five successive matches in 3-0 at a world level major tournament for the first time since a run of six at the 2011 World League.
• They have had already recorded eight straight-set wins at the VNL. The only world level major tournament in which Russia (including the Soviet Union and CIS) had more straight-set wins was the 2011 World League (9).
• Russia can win seven consecutive world level major tournament matches for the first time since a run of eight at the 2014 World Championships.
• Dmitriy Muserskiy and Egor Kliuka were Russia's top scorers against Italy on 12 points each.