Lausanne, Switzerland, June 19, 2018 - Table leaders France clash with second-placed USA Sunday in Modena, with the European side already qualified to the Final Six of the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Nations League and the Americans needing one point over this last weekend of pool play to follow through. The two teams meet for the 33rd time in history, with USA leading the series 20-12.
Head-to-Head
• The United States have won 20 of their 32 matches against France at major world level competitions.
• World level major competitions are: the VNL, Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cup, World League and Grand Champions Cup.
• USA won the most recent clash with France 3-0, at the 2017 Grand Champions Cup.
• France had won the two matches prior to that defeat, 3-1 and 3-2 at the World League in 2017.
• The last time USA won two successive matches against France in straight sets was in 2007 (World League) and 2010 (world championships).
• USA and France have both won 10 matches at the VNL, most of all teams.
United States
• The United States have won their last five VNL matches. They also started their VNL campaign with five wins, before suffering two defeats.
• USA could claim four successive wins in straight sets at world level major competitions for the first time since the 2015 World Cup, when they had four in a row.
• The previous word level tournament in which USA recorded at least 11 wins was the World League in 2015 (11).
• Matt Anderson is USA's top scorer on 126 points, including 14 serve aces.
• Erik Shoji has an 18 percent efficiency as receiver.
France
• France can win seven matches in a row at world level major tournaments for the first time since a run of 15 consecutive wins at the World League in 2015.
• That winning streak of 15 matches ended in a 3-1 defeat against USA (3-1) in July 2015.
• The previous word level tournament in which France recorded at least 11 win was at the World League in 2017 (12).
• Stephen Boyer scored 120 spikes, with a 53.57 success rate.
• Jenia Grebennikov (56) and USA's Micah Christenson (56) have registered most digs. Grebennikov's set average of 1.30 per set is slightly higher than Christenson's 1.24.