Sada Cruzeiro triumphed in the event for the fourth time, all of them at the Ginasio Divino Braga – Photos: Agênciai7

The winningest club in Brazilian men’s volleyball history, Sada Cruzeiro added another major trophy to their cabinet on Saturday as the reigning South American champions won the FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship for the fourth time.

The winners of the 2013, 2015 and 2016 editions of the event, Sada Cruzeiro triumphed in the event for the fourth time, all of them at the Ginasio Poliesportivo Divino Braga, in their hometown Betim. The Brazilians avenged a setback from the tournament’s gold medal match of two years ago to Cucine Lube Civitanova and took the reigning Italian champions down in impressive three sets (25-17, 25-22, 25-23) in front of nearly 5,000 home fans.

With four world titles to their name, Sada Cruzeiro trail only Italian powerhouse Trentino Itas, who have a record five gold medals (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2018) in the tournament. The Italians finished third in this year’s edition.

Awarded as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, Cuban Olympian Miguel Angel Lopez was unstoppable in the gold medal match. The 24-year-old outside hitter delivered 12 points against Lube, with ten kills and two aces, and led the winners.

“I’m out of words to describe our performance tonight,” Lopez said. “It’s a very important day in the history of our club. We were strong from the first to the last point of the tournament and I’m really proud of each of us. When I first got here, I said I wanted to win as many titles as possible with Sada and this victory is a big part of it. To me, our entire team is the real MVP. Every player did their job really well and I’m proud of the entire team. My serve didn’t work well in the opening match and my teammates gave me all the confidence I needed to keep going for it.”

The 34-year-old Olympic champion opposite Wallace returned to Sada Cruzeiro ahead of the 2021-2022 season after five years playing for other clubs and won his third world title with the Betim side.

“We feel like we accomplished our mission here,” middle blocker Isac Santos reflected. “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but we gave everything we had and we earned it. We never expected a 3-0 victory in the final, but we know that when we’re focused, we’re really hard to beat. We approached every match as a final and played with a lot of intensity and focus.”

Opposite Wallace returned to Sada Cruzeiro ahead of the 2021-2022 season after five years