Bologna, Italy, June 7, 2015 - Italy come from behind to take a tense 3-2 (25-14, 19-25, 18-25, 25-20, 15-12) win over Serbia in Bologna, gaining revenge for Friday's shock loss. Luca Vettori and Simone Anzani lead from the front for Italy who stay second behind Brazil in Pool A.
Italy got their noses in front from the start of the first set taking an early 4-0 advantage before an early Nikola Grbic time-out produced the Italian's first mistake as they missed a serve which allowed Serbia to narrow the score to 4-3. However Italy began to assert a first set dominance building an 8 point gap at 16-8 with Simone Anzani blocking and serving with authority. Italy continued to dominate to go 1-0 up in the tie with a 25-14 first set win.
Serbia needed to start the second set with a statement but it was Italy that gifted the Serbian side a lead as serving errors saw the away side take an early 6-8 lead. Serbia threatened to open up a gap but Italy continued to peg them back in a closer second set. With Sasa Starovic now on court, Serbia pulled away in the latter stages of the set to tie the game at 1-1 after taking the second set 19-25. The third set started evenly for both sides as they were looking to take the edge in the tie. Italy's Luca Vettori was keeping his side in the third set but Italy's serving continued to be their achilles heel as they were guilty of giving Serbia free points and the away side went 2-1 up in the tie with a 25-18 third set win.
Early fourth set exchanges were even between the sides with Italy looking to extend the tie into a final set. Anzani was looking to put Italy ahead and took his side ahead 11-9 thanks to excellent blocking before Serbia called a time-out, hoping to slow the Italian momentum down. However Italy continued to edge ahead and took the game into a deciding set after a 25-20 with errors creeping in on both sides.
The final set began as the others with both sides trying to take an early lead and it was the home side that made the first break for the win despite Serbia tactically calling time-outs and they took the tie after a fine Anzani block, his sixth of the game to give Italy 1 15-13 tie-break win.
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