Serbia will play the victor of Thursday’s late semifinal between China and the Netherlands for the gold medal.
Advertisement
Ranked No. 1 in the world coming into the Olympics and with host country and archrival Brazil out of the tournament in the quarterfinals, the US women’s volleyball team was looking primed to win its first-ever Olympic gold in volleyball.
Serbia, playing in their first Olympic semi-final, were riding high after sending Russian Federation home two days earlier and defeated the United States 20-25 25-17 25-21 16-25 15-13 in a five-set clash that could have gone either way.
The ideal run of Dubuque native Kayla Banwarth and the USA women’s volleyball team came to a heartbreaking end this afternoon.
The women’s indoor volleyball tournament is down to its final two matches at the 2016 Rio Olympics. “And honestly, we just wanted to turn this around, for her, for everybody who’s a part of this program”.
It’s the third consecutive Olympics the Americans medaled in women’s volleyball – they won silver in both the 2008 and 2012 Games.
Three former Huskers are on the 12-member USA team. “We have a chance in the next 48 hours to do so”. We’re going to process that some, we get some time to grieve.
Both of those teams also advanced out of the preliminary pool with the US and Serbia, which had lost a four-setter last week to the Americans.
Serbia then took the next two sets, 25-17 and 25-21.
Team USA came back from a 16-14 deficit in the opening set, scoring three unanswered points breaking an 18-all tie en route to a 25-20 victory with seven of the final nine points.
“Our team has a great culture and dynamic”.
Advertisement
“It’s not going to happen this month”, Kiraly said.
