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.
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The Americans made the trip to Rio with one goal and one goal only on their mind: Catching a return flight home with gold medals draped around their necks. All 12 Americans were forced to step up and play in her absence, and the US got a big performance off the bench from Karsta Lowe, but it wasn’t enough.
Team USA, having been on the doorstep at gold with silver-medal finishes in the last two Olympic Games and in 1984, will regroup in an effort to win the bronze on Saturday at 11 a.m. (CT) against the loser of the second semifinal between Netherlands and China.
“Right now, this loss is deeply disappointing”, said head coach Karch Kiraly after the match.
“We left everything out there”, USA’s Jordan Larson said. We’re going to process that some, we get some time to grieve.
Serbia raced out to a 7-3 lead in the second set and never allowed the Americans back into it, winning 25-17. Serbia is a great team.
Download the Team USA app today for breaking news, 2016 U.S. Olympic Team bios, videos and more. “We have a chance in the next 48 hours to do so”. The Dutch are competing in their first Olympics in 20 years.
Serbia continued the momentum into the third set with an early 8-1 lead and hung on for a 25-21 victory to go up 2-1 in sets.
“It took everybody”, Christa Dietzen said on Team USA getting back into the match. “We signed up to do difficult things for United States of America and we’re going to come back hard in the next 48 hours”.
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“One thing that we would like to accomplish, and it’s not going to happen this month”, Kiraly said.
