Rome, Italy June 25, 2016 - Ivan Zaytsev scored 19 points as Italy routed Belgium in straight sets (25-20, 25-17, 31-29) in Pool E1 of FIVB World League encounter on Saturday.
The second best scorer for the winning team was Luca Vettori with 17 teams while Francois Lecat claimed team-high 12 points for Belgium.
Italy's all five matches in the 2016 World League have finished in straight sets. The match on Saturday was exciting despite the clear result, especially in the third set when Belgium gave their best.
In the first set Simone Giannelli built his game on Luca Vettori and Ivan Zaytsev which worked fine. Belgium did his game in the block section and Francois Lecat was the main spiker for his team. The match was from the beginning full of digs and long rallies that underlined the quality of both teams.
In the second set Belgium took the lead in the early phase, but then Zaytsev decided to break the set with his crushing serving, scoring 4 aces in an only one serving turn, putting the opponents’ reception in troubles. After this turn, the other players felt the confidence too and both Oleg Antonov and Giannelli did their best from the 9-meters line.
In the third set Jolan Cox delivered great performance for Belgium, but Italy found again its strongest weapon in serving to win the match after an exicting finish.