Australia's men's volleyballers have recorded one of their biggest wins, upsetting Italy 3-0 in front of a capacity Italian crowd in Jesolo.
It's the first time the Volleyroos have beaten Italy at any level and it's Australia's first win of the 2015 World League season.
Two weeks ago, the Australians were trounced 2-0 by an inexperienced Italian team in Adelaide and it was a similar loss last weekend away to Brazil.
"That's a part of the story of the Volleyroos, right there," Australia's most-capped player, Nathan Roberts, said after the match.
"It's a little part, and we want to do that fairly consistently. To knock off an iconic team like Italy, they've been world champions, they've been Olympic medallists, they're a big team and a good team.
"Hopefully, it's just a stepping stone. We play them again on Sunday (Monday morning AEST) and hopefully we can do it again."
Few people gave Australia a chance of upsetting the Italians, especially with the home side recalling star players Ivan Zaytsev and Emanuele Birarelli.
But Zaytsev struggled all night, with the Australians targeting him until Italian coach Mauro Berruto took him out of the game midway through the second set.
The key to Australia's win was a powerful, almost error-free, service game, led by captain Tom Edgar, Paul Sanderson and the youngest member of the Volleyroos, Sam Walker.
Vying for player of the match for Australia was 2012 Olympian Greg Suikochev, who took the role of starting setter and gave Australia's power hitters an armchair ride all night.
The Australians grew in confidence as the night progressed, even rallying to regain the lead after they were headed for the first time in the third set, running out winners 25-16, 25-18, 25-21.
Edgar led the way for the Volleyroos with 22 points.
"It's great for such a young team to have this sort of win, and for the boys to experience a win against a high-quality team like Italy, it's great," Edgar said.
"It's great for us building for the future, and it's great for the boys to experience that sort of emotion so early in our journey."
The Volleyroos are playing in group one of World League for the first time, having won group two last year.
The two teams will meet again in Verona on Monday morning before the Australians head to Serbia for two matches.
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