Host nation Italy ousted two-time defending champions Russia in a sellout Mediolanum Forum at the FIVB Women's Volleyball World Championship in Milan, Italy on Friday evening.

Italy started off smoking as star player Nadia Centoni was unstoppable over the net along while wing spiker Antonella Del Core contributed with cross court attacks to easily take the first set at 25-12.

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The second set was more of the same as Centoni continued her barrage of attacks with Del Core following suit to lead 2-0.

With the top spot of Pool G already secured, Italy coach Marco Bonitta pulled out five of its six starting players in the third set in order to give his second stringers some valuable exposure. He decided to keep Christina Chirichella as middle blocker and took out his star players for some rest.

The third set was as expected as the cold Italian squad was clearly outplayed by the Russian team with Tatiana Kosheleva leading them to a 25-12 win over the set.

Coach Bonitta kept his second stringers in the fourth set who have already warmed up as they went head-to-head with Valentina Diouf pulling off kills that ended the two-year reign of Russia 25-12, 25-17, 12-25, 25-23.

Diouf ended out as top scorer for Italy with 13 points and Chirichella contributed with 11 points while Kosheleva top scored for the Russian side with 15 points.

 "The most important thing for us was to win the match this evening," Bonitta said. "I thought about the other players who haven't played much in this tournament, I decided they had to play now. The most important thing was the reaction we had and how we did."

Italy is now heading to the final rounds along with the United States and will go up against China while team USA will battle it out with two-time Olympic Gold medalists Brazil.

TagsValentina Diouf, Nadia Centoni, Tatiana Kosheleva, Antonella Del Core