Two-time Olympic Gold medalist Brazil crushed the United States in straight sets while Russia claimed the final spot of Pool F at the FIVB Women's Volleyball World Championship in Italy on Sunday.

Both teams did not start with their usual starting line-up as top scorer Kelly Murphy of the United States did not play while Thaisa Menezes, Fernanda Rodrigues and team captain Fabiana Claudino sat out the bench for Brazil.

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Brazil started off with their second stringers but only proved how deep their bench is as Tandara Caixeta led her team with 21 points to claim the top spot over the Americans 25-23, 25-22, 25-21.

Braga Guimaraes contributed 12 points for Brazil while Nicole Fawcett and Kristin Lynn Hildebrand combined 25 points for team USA.

"I lined up the second team because I was worried for my girls, because they have been playing a lot of matches without rest," Brazil coach Jose Roberto Lages Guimaraes said. "I hoped to win, even if it wasn't so important, as we were already qualified."

Since Team USA already qualified, coach Karch Kiraly decided to use most of his players in order for them to have exposure.

"We use lots of players every time, when we know that we're moving on and when we don't know that we're moving on," Kiraly said. "All through this tournament we tried to use many players because we have confidence in all of them, and we know that if we use all of fourteen players early, we'll all be a little bit stronger, more experienced and more rested in the end."

Meantime, defending champion Russia had a do-or-die matchup against Serbia in an earlier match at the PaloOlimpia Arena in Verona.

The Russian nationals would not be denied of their title just yet as they finished off Serbia in three straight sets 28-26, 25-18, 25-17 to claim the last spot of their pool to advance to the final round.

Nataliya Goncharova and Tatiana Kosheleva were both unstoppable over the net as they scored 19 and 17 points respectively to top the Russian team while Tijana Boskovic led Serbia with 17 points.

"Winning the first set made us more self-confident and made Serbia more anxious," Russian coach Yury Marichev said. "This was a nervous match, but we were well prepared for it. I don't know what will happen in Milan, we will think about it once we get there."

TagsKarch Kiraly, Kelly Murphy, Thaisa Menezes, Fernanda Rodrigues, Nataliya Goncharova, Tatiana Kosheleva