Olympics volleyball results: August 18
Serbia and China will play for the gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics women’s volleyball tournament following Thursday’s semifinal action.
The matchups in the medal rounds in the 2016 Rio Olympics volleyball semifinal are set following a pair of hotly contested semifinals on Thursday.
Top ranked Team USA looked to continue its undefeated run and advance to its third consecutive title game with a win against No. 6 Serbia, which finished in third place in Pool B and impressively swept Russia in the quarterfinal. The United States looked overpowering in a 25-20 first set win, but Serbia responded with a 25-17 victory in the second.
Serbia then really put the U.S. on upset alert by racing out to an 8-1 lead in the third set. The United States got as close as 22-20 before Serbia put set point away on its sixth ace of the game, giving the Americans their first major test of the tournament.
Team USA responded to the pressure, putting the fourth set away quickly 25-16 to set up a winner-take-all fifth frame. The Americans had a narrow lead for much of the set until Serbia knotted things up at 12 and took a one-point lead on another ace.
The teams traded service errors, and Tijana Bošković’s kill gave Serbia the 15-13 victory to advance to its first ever gold medal match. Brankica Mihajlovic had 22 points to lead all scorers and deny the Americans another chance at their first Olympic gold medal.
In the other semifinal of the night, third-ranked China met the underdog Netherlands in another hard-fought match. The two teams traded sets to open the match, with the Netherlands battling back from an early two-point deficit to take the second 25-23.
That momentum initially continued in the third set, as the Netherlands opened a 6-0 lead before China battled back to knot things up at 23. The teams traded points all the way to 27-27 before China took the set, aided by a crucial Dutch service error.
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Service errors hurt the Netherlands early in the fourth, but the two teams would find themselves tied at 23. Following up a 28-point performance in the quarterfinals, Zhu Ting recorded her 33rd point up 24-23 to lead China to its fourth-ever Olympic final.