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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Serbia stunned the top-ranked USA women’s volleyball team that was chasing its first ever Olympic gold. In the process, star player Foluke Akinradewo went down with a leg injury and was unable to play the final three sets.
Akinradewo, 28, suffered an apparent left knee injury and had to leave the match in the second set as Serbia stunned the top-ranked Americans 20-25, 25-17, 25-21, 16-25, 15-13 in the semifinals of the Rio Games.
Serbia held off a furious rally by the United States to win 3-2, knocking off the favorites and advancing to face the Netherlands/China victor in the gold medal matchup on Saturday.
United States of America 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.
When Serbia’s final spike couldn’t be controlled by the US, with the ball sailing out of bounds, the Serbians erupted. Mainly Brazilian spectators booed the US servers and cheered when the Serbian players scored, chanting “Ole ole ola, Serbia, Serbia”. “We’re here for each other”. Akinradewo had planned to enter medical school after London but instead returned for one more attempt at winning the gold medal. “Our team has a great culture and dynamic”. “That’s what’s going to show and that’s what’s going to carry us through”.
“Serbia was doing a nice job with creating problems for us”, Kiraly said. After winning the world championship previous year, the team arrived in Rio as the heavy favorite and went undefeated in pool play. Its chances for that elusive gold looked even better after Brazil, its toughest rival, was upset in the quarterfinal round by China.
For Serbia, it was the first time they had made it to the final four in the sport at the Olympics, and now they will be competing for the gold for the first time as well.
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