A first defeat for the United States’ women’s volleyball team at Rio 2016 proved costly as they missed out on a place in Saturday’s final with a 3-2 loss to Serbia.
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The No. 1 ranked team in the world left the Maracanãzinho arena in tears Thursday afternoon as Serbia pulled off an upset in five sets (20-25, 25-17, 25-21, 16-25, 15-13).
Akinradewo, perhaps the team’s most consistent performer through the Olympics, had six points in the opening set, including three of the team’s six blocks before she went down with an injury early in the second set.
U.S. will be rueing the missed chance to challenge for gold, with two-time defending champions Brazil – who beat them in each of the past two finals – already eliminated. A U.S.net violation made it an 11-9, then a Lowe service fault allowed Serbia to draw even at 12-12 before the US women jumped out of the way of a Serbia serve, expecting it to sail out of bounds only to watch it catch the back of the court and hand the Serbians a one-point advantage.
Kiraly could not say whether or not Akinradewo would be available for the bronze medal match, saying all he knows is that the injury is “to one of her legs”.
China will face the Netherlands later on Thursday and are favorites to reach Sunday’s final. Serbia is a great team.
“We did a good job rallying around each other”, veteran outside hitter Jordan Larson told reporters.
Akinradewo stood next to Kiraly during timeouts, shaking her head and yelling, “Come on!” After winning the world championship a year ago, the team arrived in Rio as the heavy favorite and went undefeated in pool play.
“In this important, hard moment we showed that we wanted to win more or we have more courage”, Mihajlovic told reporters.
The U.S. will take on a determined Dutch team back in the Olympics for the first time in 20 years.
“One thing that we would like to accomplish, and it’s not going to happen this month”, Kiraly said.
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With its toughest rivals knocked out, Serbia will compete for gold for the first time on Sunday, against China or the Netherlands.
