Italy's volleyball team surprisingly loses to USA in Nations League quarterfinal

The United States, current Olympic bronze medalists and previously finishing 12th in the last two Nations League tournaments after losses in the 2022 and 2023 finals, faced Italy—winners of the last two World Championships. Italy had reached the gold medal match last year, losing to Poland.

Earlier this summer, Italy beat the USA 3-2 in Ottawa, making them the favorites on Thursday. However, the match took a different turn as the Americans won convincingly 3-0 (25:22, 25:21, 25:21).

In the first set, the USA took an early 11-6 lead, later lost it to 17-17, but regained control with three consecutive winning plays at the end. The second set saw a dominant performance by the Americans, while in the third, Italy quickly squandered a 15-10 lead, falling behind 15-16 and ultimately collapsing.

The USA had 14 aces compared to Italy's 5. Jake Heinze scored 21 points, including six aces, while Matthew Anderson added 15 points (three aces). For Italy, Yuri Romano tallied 16 points.

In other quarterfinals, Japan beat China 3-1, Slovenia defeated Turkey 3-0, and the result of Poland vs Ukraine is yet to be determined.