USA - Italy (full match)

The USA opened the second stage of the World Grand Champions Cup with a 3:2 victory over Italy on Friday at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. Key for success were team's scoring leader Matthew Anderson. He finished 26 of 46 balls in attack. It was 57% efficiency in attack! He said: "It is always a battle when we play Italy, especially in the past five or six years. They have a young team that plays fast. Lee passed well for us and Zaytsev was good for them. We served strongly toward the end and put pressure on them. It is easy to get frustrated when you lose set points like we did in the fourth, but we kept it together". On the press conference, USA coach John Speraw said: "This was a close, high-level match. The margin of victory was very small. Our players had a good attitude throughout the match and never got down. That was important as we made key plays late in the sets. I'm most pleased with the way we competed in this match".

#FilippoLanza #MatthewAnderson #Italy #USA #GrandChampionsCup2013