A USA Volleyball spokesman said in an email that team officials don’t know whether the 6-foot-3 middle blocker will be available Saturday. The women re-dedicated themselves to winning nothing but gold after losing in the past two Olympic finals to Brazil.
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Leaning over, hands on her knees and cheering, injured US star Foluke Akinradewo could only watch.
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.
The Serbians were riding high after sending Russian Federation home two days earlier and defeated the US 20-25 25-17 25-21 16-25 15-13 in a five-set clash that could have gone either way.
First-time semifinalists Serbia will now advance to take on the victor of China and the Netherlands in the other semifinal, looking to claim gold. A huge Akinradewo block then gave the US a 23-19 lead, and they were able to hang on and win the set 25-20.
The American coaches were scouting the thriller.
“This loss is deeply disappointing”, Kiraly said.
Coach Kiraly said Akinradewo was in pain and could not continue playing. “When you care that much, it’s going to”.
“‘We get some time to grieve”, Kiraly said.
Akinradewo’s teammates took over after she was sidelined by an apparent left knee injury late in the opening set after beginning the match brilliantly. In the process, star player Foluke Akinradewo went down with a leg injury and was unable to play the final three sets.
“It was tough when Foluke went down”. Obviously we wanted to turn this around for her and for everybody that’s a part of this program. “We have a chance in the next 48 hours to do so”. “No team comes here not wanting to win the gold”, she told Reuters. Serbia kept pounding, digging out balls, leaping for blocks and serving with precision.
The strategy appeared to backfire – it was Serbia that came out flying, taking advantage of several USA errors to take a 13-12 lead as the arena exploded with noise. “It’s an unbelievable feeling”, Rasic said. “I thought we did a good job of just fighting together and fighting for every point”. We made it. This is history. “We wrote history for Serbia, for volleyball federation, for the world”.
The Americans are knocked out of title contention, and two-time defending Olympic champion Brazil was ousted in a stunning five-setter by China in the quarterfinals.
With roughly 46 hours in between matches, US is taking notes from fellow Americans Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross, who faced the crushing heartbreak of defeat in the beach volleyball semifinal and had to get over the disappointment to play the following night for the bronze.
“We are going after the bronze, that’s our goal now”, said USA captain Christa Dietzen, with tears in eyes as she recalled the distraction caused to her team by Akinradewo’s injury. Undefeated in Rio going into the match, the 7-1 squad will now play the Netherlands for bronze on Saturday.
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“In this important, hard moment we showed that we wanted to win more or we have more courage”, Mihajlovic told reporters. The Americans will take on the loser for a bronze medal.
