Ankara, Turkey, June 23, 2016 - Brazil will be looking for their 11th consecutive FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix victory over Italy, when the two sides meet on Friday, at the 2016 Group 1 tournament in Turkey.
Head-to-Head
• Italy and Brazil will meet for the 26th time at the World Grand Prix. Brazil leads with 21 victories against Italy's four.
• The 21 defeats against Brazil is Italy's highest number of losses against a single opponent at the World Grand Prix. They have lost 14 matches to Russia.
• These teams most recently met earlier in this year's competition on 9 June. Brazil won 3-1 and are currently on their longest winning streak against Italy in the World Grand Prix (10).
• Brazil outblocked Italy 17-8 in their meeting two weeks ago, with Natalia Pereira (5) and Fabiana Claudino (7) scoring most points from stuff blocks.
• Italy's last win over Brazil at the World Grand Prix came on 8 August 2010 (3-1).
Italy
• Italy have lost their last three World Grand Prix matches - 3-1 against Netherlands and five-set defeats against Russia and Thailand.
• Italy can lose three successive World Grand Prix matches in five sets for the first time since 2003 when they lost consecutively against Netherlands, Cuba and Japan.
• Valentina Diouf leads her teammates in scoring with 76 points in total (58 spikes, 10 blocks, 8 aces).
• Coming into this weekend of play, Paola Ogechi Egonu is the second-best spiker in Group 1 of the competition with a success rate of 44.8%. Only Lonneke Slöetjes (NED) has a better rate (45.9%).
Brazil
• Brazil suffered a second defeat in this year's competition when China proved too strong (3-0) on 19 June.
• Brazil could lose successive World Grand Prix matches for the first time since a run of four defeats in 2007. That streak included a defeat against Italy.
• Brazil have only once lost back-to-back World Grand Prix matches in straight sets: in 2002.
• The last time Brazil suffered three defeats at a single edition of the World Grand Prix was in 2010, including a defeat against Italy.
• Coming into this weekend of play, Danielle Lins is the best setter of Group 1 with an average of 5.23 per set.