Cuiaba, Brazil, July 2, 2015 - Brazil take a 3-0 (25-20, 26-24, 25-19) straight sets victory over Italy with Ricardo Lucarelli again leading the scoring for the Samba boys with 12 points to move further ahead in Pool A, whilst Italy's faint hopes of taking second place in the league are dashed.
The first contest of the weekend saw Pool A leaders taking on an Italy side who still harboured faint hopes of finising second but backed by their fans, Brazil opened up an early 6-2 lead. Italy fought back to reduce the deficit to just one at 9-8 but from here the home team surged in front once again to open up a 16-11 lead. Italy called a time-out to stem the flow and though Brazil initially increased the lead to five points, Italy again closed the gap. However the damage had been done as the first set went to Brazil 25-20 to take a 1-0 lead in the contest.
Italy came out fighting in the second set and took an early 8-2 lead thanks to some impressive spiking from Emanuele Birarelli who was four from four at this stage. Brazil had clearly been shocked by Italy's fast start but soon began to claw their way back into the set to cut the lead to just one at 20-19. Lucas Saatkamp was leading the fightback for the home side as they turned the set around in sudden death to take a 26-24 win for a 2-0 lead.
After the second set turnaround, it was expected that Italy would be on the backfoot straight from the start but again they took an early lead 8-6 lead to stun the home crowd. Midway through the third set, the scores were level at 14-14 with Ricardo Lucarelli having a storming third set to lead the team in points as once again Brazil grew stronger as the set wore on and the home side delighted their fans as they secured a 3-0 straight sets victory with a 25-19
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