Sapporo, Japan, November 12, 2011 – Nineteen points from Italy’s top scorer Carolina del Pilar Costagrande led the defending champions to a surprise 3-0 (25-23, 25-16, 25-22) win over world No. 1 Brazil in Sapporo on Saturday to maintain their amazing unbeaten run in the FIVB World Cup 2011.

Italy had only won six of the previous 26 encounters between the two stellar sides in world volleyball but really turned on their A game to make it seven wins from seven matches. The straight sets victory was their third against Brazil, repeating their World Cup result in Nagoya four years ago as well as their victory in Fukuoka in 2009 to win the Grand Champions Cup. Both teams have been affected with injuries and were missing key players but Italy were too clinical for the pre-match favourites Brazil, who were coming off a tough five-set victory against China. The emotional high on Friday quickly changed to disbelief and disappointment as the Olympic champions suffered their second defeat of the tournament to slip to sixth on 12 points – eight behind Italy.

The win was Italy’s 18th World Cup triumph in a row, moving to second on the overall record, surpassing China’s 17 (1977-1989) and trailing Cuba’s 22 (1995, 1999 and 2003). The last time Italy had lost in a World Cup was against Brazil in 2003 in their final  match. For Brazil, Sheilla Castro, who went into the match as the tournament’s second leading scorer with 93 points, led the Brazilians with 13. “It was a really great match, we didn’t make many mistakes,” Costagrande said. “Brazil’s play was not as it usually is; they were not at their best. That’s why it wasn’t a close game but of course we had less mistakes, and our performance was better than yesterday.”

“I’m really happy because we beat one of the strongest team in the world,” Italy coach Massimo Barbolini said. “I think we are returning to the kind of Italy that can receive, defend, and fight for every ball. I think that our blockers worked very well. It’s always difficult to play against Brazil, but I think we had order in our blocking so our defence could do the other things. Blocking without confusion led to good work on defence. So everything went well. It is not possible to win 3-0 against Brazil if it’s not perfect.”

Meanwhile, USA maintained their spot in second place on 18 points with six wins and one defeat following a comfortable 3-0 (25-12, 25-12, 25-9) win over Algeria at the Momotaro Arena in Okayama but the big upset of the day happened at the same venue with the ninth-placed Dominic Republic pulling off an amazing 3-2 (30-28, 22-25, 25-14, 18-25, 15-12) win over third-placed Germany thanks to a World Cup record breaking points haul of 42 points by Bethania de la Cruz De Pena. The World Cup leading scorer’s amazing feat included six blocks and five service aces but trails the international record of 53 points by Croatia’s Barbara Jelic in the 1999 European Championships semifinals. “I’m really very satisfied with the victory over Germany, it was a big effort from our side.,” De La Cruz said. “For me, I’m really happy because I played very focused, which is what I do whenever we play big teams like Germany.”

In other results, China beat Serbia for the first time ever (from four matches) with a stunning 3-1 (21–25, 25–19, 25–23, 25–23) win, propelling the three-time champions into third on the World Cup standings with 16 points ahead of Germany. While Argentina had to overcome an early scare before overcoming Kenya 3-0 (26-24, 25-13, 25-16). In the last match in Sapporo Japan made short work of Korea on its home court in three sets (25-21, 25-18, 25-17).

For winless and scoreless Algeria and Kenya, Olympic Games qualification is now out of the question. With four games remaining only a maximum of 12 points remain on offer and they trail third place China by 16 points. The qualification chances of Korea, on four points, are also effectively over.

In further fascinating action on Sunday in Sapporo sees Italy (1st) play Serbia (6th), China (3rd) take on Korea (10th) and Japan (5th) up against Brazil (6th) while in Okayama, Argentina (8th) play Germany (4th), Algeria (12th) take on Kenya (11th) and USA face the Dominican Republic (9th).

The World Cup, which offers tickets to the London Olympic Games to the three medallists, continues until November 18 after each of the 12 teams team has played each other once, offering three points for a 3-0 or 3-1 win (a 3-2 result gives two points to the winner and one to the loser). The men’s tournament follows in Japan from November 20 to December 4.

Top Scoring Performances
42 - Bethania De La Cruz de Peña (Dominican Republic) v Germany on Nov 12
29 - Bethania De La Cruz de Peña (Dominican Republic) v China on Nov 8
29 - Kim Yeon-Koung (Korea) v Brazil on Nov 8
27 - Carolina del Pilar Costagrande (Italy) v China on Nov. 5

Top Blocking Performances
7 – Foluke Akinradewo (USA) v Germany on Nov. 9
7 – Christiane Fürst (GER) v Algeria on Nov. 11
7 – Fabiana Claudino (BRA) v China on Nov. 11

Top Service Ace Performances
7 – Paula Yamila Nizetich (Argentina) v Algeria on Nov. 6

Highest Set Score
32-30 – Germany v USA (Set 1) on Nov. 9

Highest Scoring Matches
223 – Brazil beat China 3-2 (25-23, 25-27, 21-25, 25-20, 17-15) on Nov. 11
219 – Germany beat Serbia 3-2 (25-22, 24-26, 25-23, 23-25, 15-11) on Nov. 8
214 – Dominican Republic beat Germany 3-2 (30-28, 22-25, 25-14, 18-25, 15-12) on Nov 12
211 – Italy def. China 3-2 (25-20, 22-25, 21-25, 25-21, 15-12) on Nov. 5
210 – China def. Japan 3-2 (20-25, 25-19, 20-25, 25-23, 15-13) on Nov. 6

For more information contact:
FIVB Press Director Richard Baker
press@fivb.org or +81 (0)80 2584 4604