Team Preview

Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour
US$150,000 Itapema Challenge
April 14 - 17, 2022

(13) Samuele Cottafava/Paolo Nicolai, Italy

Samuele Cottafava
Italy

Photo: FIVB

Personal Info

Birth Date:

Nov 1, 1998 (27 yrs old)

Home Town:

Modena

Height:

193 cm (6'4")

Weight:

82 kg (180 lb)

Seasons:

Tournaments:

Career Wins:

Career Winnings:

US$186,031.39

Paolo Nicolai
Italy

Photo: FIVB

Personal Info

Birth Date:

Aug 6, 1988 (37 yrs old)

Home Town:

Ortona

Height:

203 cm (6'8")

Weight:

91 kg (200 lb)

Seasons:

Tournaments:

154

Career Wins:

Career FIVB WT Wins:

Career Winnings:

US$705,037.50

Awards

Most Improved Player 2012
Best Offensive Player 2014
Best Blocker 2016

Team Career Summary

Tour	Played	1	2	3	4	5	7	9	13	17	25	Money
FIVB	34	1	3	3	2	8	0	11	3	3	0	US$319,750.00

Previous Itapema Results Neither player has played in this venue before

Recent Results

Tour	Date	Tournament	Seed	Finish	Points	Money
FIVB	3/23-27/2022	Rosarito Elite 16	15, Q7	13th	460	US$5,000.00
FIVB	3/16-20/2022	Tlaxcala Challenge	14	9th	460	US$2,500.00

Itapema Challenge Matches

Date	Bracket	Opponent	Score	Time
Fri, 4/15/2022	Pool A	Kusti Nolvak / Mart Tiisaar, Estonia (12)	Won 21-15, 21-18	0:32
Fri, 4/15/2022	Pool A	Andre Loyola / George Wanderley, Brazil (1)	Lost 31-29, 18-21, 13-15	1:05
Sat, 4/16/2022	Winner 1	Christiaan Varenhorst / Steven van de Velde, Netherlands (7)	Won 21-17, 19-21, 15-13	0:47
Sat, 4/16/2022	Winner 2	Andre Loyola / George Wanderley, Brazil (1)	Lost 19-21, 21-23	0:44

Team Finishes By Tournament Type

Tournament Type	Played	Gold	Silver	Bronze	4th	5-6th	7-8th	9-12th	13-16th	17-24th	25th	Lower	Winnings (US$)
Olympic Games	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	$0.00
World Championships	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	$22,000.00
World Tour Finals	3	0	0	1	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	$77,500.00
Elite/Major Series/Five Star/Grand Slam	22	1	2	1	2	6	0	4	3	3	0	0	$194,000.00
Challenge/Four Star/Open	6	0	1	1	0	1	0	3	0	0	0	0	$26,250.00
Total	34	1	3	3	2	8	0	11	3	3	0	0	$319,750.00

Individual Finishes by Tournament Type

Samuele Cottafava												Paolo Nicolai
Played	Gold	Silver	Bronze	4th	5-8th	9-16th	17-24th	25th	Lower	Winnings (US$)	Tournament Type	Played	Gold	Silver	Bronze	4th	5-8th	9-16th	17-24th	25th	Lower	Winnings (US$)
1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	$0.00	Olympic Games	4	0	1	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	$0.00
2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	$11,000.00	World Championships	8	0	0	0	0	1	4	3	0	0	$41,500.00
4	0	0	1	0	1	1	0	1	0	$40,750.00	World Tour Finals	8	0	0	2	1	3	1	1	0	0	$99,250.00
26	1	2	1	2	6	10	4	0	0	$103,750.00	Elite/Major Series/Five Star/Grand Slam	77	2	6	6	4	10	27	16	4	0	$423,700.00
18	0	1	1	1	2	4	4	1	0	$26,750.00	Challenge/Four Star/Open	50	2	4	4	1	15	10	8	5	0	$134,337.50
11	3	1	1	0	2	2	2	0	0	$2,575.00	Futures/Three Star/Two Star/One Star	3	0	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	$6,250.00
											U21 World Championships	3	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	$0.00
											U18/19 World Championships	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	$0.00
62	4	4	4	3	11	20	10	2	0	$184,825.00	Total	154	6	13	13	6	31	43	29	9	0	$705,037.50

Team Finishes by Season

			Results												Matches
Season	Assoc	Played	Gold	Silver	Bronze	4th	5-6th	7-8th	9-12th	13-16th	17-24th	25th	Lower	Winnings (US$)	Won	Lost	Pct
2022	FIVB	3	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	$11,250.00	6	6	50.0 %
Total	FIVB	3	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	$11,250.00	6	6	50.0 %

Individual Finishes by Season

Samuele Cottafava													Paolo Nicolai
Played	Gold	Silver	Bronze	4th	5-8th	9-16th	17-24th	25th	Lower	Winnings (US$)	Season	Association	Played	Gold	Silver	Bronze	4th	5-8th	9-16th	17-24th	25th	Lower	Winnings (US$)
											2006	FIVB Age Group WC	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	$0.00
											2007	FIVB Age Group WC	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	$0.00
											2008	FIVB	5	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	2	0	$7,550.00
											2008	FIVB Age Group WC	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	$0.00
											2009	FIVB	6	0	0	0	0	1	2	2	1	0	$16,725.00
											2010	FIVB	8	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	2	0	$13,450.00
											2011	FIVB	12	0	0	0	0	3	3	2	1	3	$31,750.00
											2012	FIVB	9	0	1	1	1	1	2	2	1	0	$45,550.00
											2013	FIVB	12	0	1	3	0	0	7	1	0	0	$56,600.00
											2014	FIVB	9	2	1	0	1	0	3	2	0	0	$93,500.00
											2015	FIVB	11	0	0	1	0	3	5	1	1	0	$58,000.00
											2016	FIVB	10	1	3	0	0	2	1	2	1	0	$35,287.50
											2017	FIVB	9	0	2	3	0	1	0	3	0	0	$64,750.00
											2018	FIVB	8	0	1	1	0	2	2	2	0	0	$47,500.00
6	1	0	0	0	0	2	2	1	0	$2,675.00	2019	FIVB	9	0	0	0	1	6	1	1	0	0	$39,000.00
3	1	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	$800.00	2020	FIVB	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	$5,000.00
8	1	0	1	0	0	0	2	0	4	$3,750.00	2021	FIVB	7	0	0	0	1	4	2	0	0	0	$30,500.00
3	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	$5,625.00	2022	FIVB	3	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	$5,625.00
20	3	0	1	0	3	4	4	1	4	$12,850.00	Total	Total	123	5	10	10	4	24	31	26	9	4	$550,787.50

Team Match Records

	Won 1st Set								Lost 1st Set								2 Set Matches		3 Set Matches		By Forfeit		All Matches
Season	Won 2-0		Won 2-1		Lost 2-1		Overall		Won 2-1		Lost 2-1		Lost 2-0		Overall		Overall		Overall		Won	Lost	Overall
Overall	60	65.9%	14	15.4%	17	18.7%	74-17	81.3%	12	19.7%	12	19.7%	37	60.7%	12-49	19.7%	60-37	61.9%	26-29	47.3%	3	3	89-69	56.3%
2021-2022	27	67.5%	4	10.0%	9	22.5%	31-9	77.5%	5	27.8%	3	16.7%	10	55.6%	5-13	27.8%	27-10	73.0%	9-12	42.9%	2	0	38-22	63.3%
Against the Field	25	67.6%	4	10.8%	8	21.6%	29-8	78.4%	5	20.8%	2	8.3%	17	70.8%	5-19	20.8%	50-26	65.8%	18-20	47.4%	1	3	35-26	57.4%

Team Match Records by Round

	Country Quota		Qualifier		Pool Play		Lucky Loser		Elimination Rounds		Semi-Finals		Bronze Medal		Gold Medal		Overall
Tournament Type	Won	Lost	Won	Lost	Won	Lost	Won	Lost	Won	Lost	Won	Lost	Won	Lost	Won	Lost	Won	Lost
Olympic Games	0	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2
World Championships	0	0	0	0	5	1	0	0	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	7	3
World Tour Finals	0	0	0	0	4	8	0	0	1	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	6	10
Elite/Major Series/Five Star/Grand Slam	0	0	10	2	32	27	0	0	10	10	3	3	1	2	1	2	57	46
Challenge/Four Star/Open	0	0	0	0	10	2	0	0	5	4	1	1	1	0	0	1	17	8
Total	0	0	10	2	53	39	0	0	18	18	4	5	3	2	1	3	89	69

Head to Head Results
Cottafava/Nicolai lead the series against the field 4-3 (Lead 4 Series, Trail 2 Series, 0 Series Tied)

Date	Tour	Tournament	Round	Winning Team	Seed	Losing Team	Seed	Score	Time
Trail the series against # 1 Loyola/Wanderley, Brazil 0-2
4/16/22	FIVB	Itapema Challenge	Winner 2	Loyola/Wanderley	1	Cottafava/Nicolai	13	21-19, 23-21	0:44
4/15/22	FIVB	Itapema Challenge	Pool A	Loyola/Wanderley	1	Cottafava/Nicolai	13	29-31, 21-18, 15-13	1:05
Lead the series against # 7 van de Velde/Varenhorst, Netherlands 1-0
4/16/22	FIVB	Itapema Challenge	Winner 1	Cottafava/Nicolai	13	Varenhorst/van de Velde	7	21-17, 19-21, 15-13	0:47
Lead the series against # 8 Brunner/Schalk, United States 1-0
3/17/22	FIVB	Tlaxcala Challenge	Pool B	Cottafava/Nicolai	14	Brunner/Schalk	11	24-22, 21-16	0:39
Trail the series against # 11, Q1 Aravena/Droguett, Chile 0-1
3/18/22	FIVB	Tlaxcala Challenge	Winner 1	Aravena/Droguett	21, Q13	Cottafava/Nicolai	14	21-17, 21-18	0:35
Lead the series against # 12 Nolvak/Tiisaar, Estonia 1-0
4/15/22	FIVB	Itapema Challenge	Pool A	Cottafava/Nicolai	13	Nolvak/Tiisaar	12	21-15, 21-18	0:32
Lead the series against # Q5 Pfretzschner/Sowa, Germany 1-0
3/23/22	FIVB	Rosarito Elite 16	Qualifier 2	Cottafava/Nicolai	15, Q7	Pfretzschner/Sowa	Q15	21-13, 21-15	0:32