Italy and Germany Rewrite the Record Books: a 64–66 set for the ages!

Reggio Calabria witnessed something extraordinary.

What was supposed to be Italy’s opening match of the FIPAV Cup Men Elite, an important final test on the road to the European Championship, suddenly became a night for the history books.
Italy and Germany turned the first set at the PalaCalafiore into an almost endless battle, eventually reaching an astonishing 64–66.

One hundred and thirty points.
Not 50. Not 60. Not even 100.
130 points in a single set.

And that number changes everything.

Just two months ago, the volleyball world was already talking about one of the most extraordinary sets ever played between national teams.
On June 28, 2026, Argentina and Poland produced a 50–48 opening set in the Volleyball Nations League in Gliwice. The set lasted 62 minutes and contained 98 points, setting a new FIVB-era record for a national-team set.

It seemed almost impossible to imagine that record being challenged so soon.
Italy and Germany did not simply challenge it.
They destroyed it.

The difference is staggering: 32 more points than Argentina–Poland.
The 64–66 score represents 130 rallies, compared with 98 in the VNL thriller.
In other words, the Reggio Calabria set produced the equivalent of more than two and a half standard 25-point sets compressed into one extraordinary battle.

And there is another remarkable detail: the previous international benchmark had itself been considered almost untouchable.
Before Argentina–Poland, the highest-scoring sets between men’s national teams in the rally-point era included France–Australia’s 44–42 at the 2016 Olympic qualification tournament, Turkey–Germany’s 44–42 in the 2024 VNL, and Brazil–Canada’s 44–42 in the 1999 World League. France and Australia, for example, played an 86-point fourth set in Tokyo, with France eventually winning 44–42.
Then came Argentina and Poland with 98.

Now Italy and Germany have gone all the way to 130.
The scale becomes even clearer when club volleyball enters the picture.
For more than a decade, one of the defining landmarks of the rally-point era had been the 56–54 third set between Korean Air Jumbos and Rush & Cash in South Korea on November 26, 2013. That set contained 110 points and was recognised as the highest-scoring set recorded in the modern rally-point system at the time.

Italy had its own legendary reference point.
On January 13, 2002, Cuneo and Sisley Treviso produced one of the most famous marathon sets in Italian volleyball history. Treviso won the second set 54–52, after 48 minutes and 106 points. That mark remained the highest-scoring set ever recorded in Italy’s top men’s league for more than two decades.

Now, even that piece of history has been overtaken by an Italian national team — and by a considerable margin.
The comparison is almost surreal:

Italy–Germany: 64–66 — 130 points
Korean Air Jumbos–Rush & Cash: 56–54 — 110 points
Cuneo–Treviso: 54–52 — 106 points
Argentina–Poland: 50–48 — 98 points
France–Australia: 44–42 — 86 points

The numbers tell the story, but they do not quite capture what a set like this means.
Volleyball is built around the idea that a set should normally end at 25 points, provided there is a two-point advantage. Once the score reaches the thirties, every rally begins to carry a different weight. At 40–40, the pressure is enormous. At 50–50, every serve, reception and attack can feel decisive.
At 64–64, there is almost no room left for imagination.
Someone has to make the mistake.
Someone has to find the winner.
Someone has to finally break the deadlock.
Germany eventually did it, closing the set 66–64 — but by then, the score itself had become bigger than the set. It had become a record.
And perhaps that is what makes this story particularly fascinating.
Italy and Germany were not playing for a title or a medal.
They were playing a preparation match, part of the FIPAV Cup Men Elite, with the European Championship ahead of them.

Yet preparation matches rarely prepare you for something like this.
For Italy, the FIPAV Cup continues with Cuba in Messina before Brazil provides the final major test ahead of the European Championship, but whatever happens in the rest of the tournament, the opening set against Germany will remain its defining image.

Because records in volleyball are usually measured in points, victories and trophies.
This one is measured in endurance.
64–66. 130 points.
One set that simply refused to end.
And after Argentina and Poland thought they had pushed the limits of international volleyball just a few weeks ago, Italy and Germany have now moved those limits somewhere nobody had seriously imagined they could go!