PARIS — The U.S. women’s volleyball team got off to a bad start in its defense of its Olympic title but managed to avoid a disastrous defeat.
The United States dropped the first two sets to China on Monday in pool play, with a playoff tiebreaker determined by total points and sets won. Both teams finished with the same score, and China ultimately won in five sets, leaving the reigning champions feeling relieved.
“I’m really proud of how we fought. You know, it’s not easy to go from being down 2-0 to having a close game like that in the fifth set,” setter Jordyn Poulter said. “You either win or you learn. So we have a lot to learn from this, a lot to improve on and get better at. We don’t want to peak too early.”
They definitely didn’t need to worry about that.
“Obviously, it wasn’t the start we were hoping for, but the third, fourth and fifth sets were really promising,” blocker Haley Washington said. “Going to five sets against a team like China is incredible and getting some points in the pool is going to be really important for us, so I’m happy with how we played right now.”
The U.S. women’s team will play their second preliminary round match against Serbia on Wednesday before facing hosts France in their final pool match on Sunday. The top two teams from each of the three pools and the top two third-placed teams will advance to the final round, with wins, total points and sets-to-point ratios used as tiebreakers.
“This game just highlights how small the gaps are and how much attention you have to pay to those little plays,” coach Kiraly said, “and a lot of credit to our team for fighting back. It’s not easy to come back from being 2-0 down against a really strong Chinese team.”
The U.S. lost just one pool game in Tokyo and none of its sets in the final tournament to win its first gold medal. After winning eight games against the 2020 champions, the U.S. arrived in Paris as the No. 5 team in the world.
But the world sixth-ranked China won the first two sets easily, 25-20, 25-19, before the Americans rallied to win the third 25-17 and then, after trailing 13-10, levelled the score at 13-13 after a challenge by China that ripped the ball off the end line.
The crowd chanted “USA!” for the first time as China called a timeout at 17-14 to regroup. An ace from Washington gave the Americans set point, then they won the final four points to take a 21-20 lead.
The winning point came on a Washington dig that led to a spike by Andrea Drewes.
But China retook the lead in the tiebreaker, after the Americans survived two match points before Chu Ting’s spike hit blocker Drews to secure the win.
