Italy sweeps USA women, who take home Paris Olympics volleyball silver

PARIS — First, let’s get the match out of the way. 

Italy steamrolled the USA and the 25-18, 25-20, 25-17 scoreline doesn’t tell all of the story, like Paola Egonu’s 18 kills or an 11-0 — really, 11-0 — blocks advantage or that the USA scored three points in a row just once in the entire match, in the middle of the first set.

What’s more, Italy, which lost just one set in six matches, took home the Paris Olympics gold medal for women’s volleyball with a simply dominating performance.

But the USA didn’t lose the gold medal. It won silver, and looking at it any other way just wouldn’t be right or fair to a team that persevered and peaked at the right time.

“It just tough. We have so much that we’re proud of from this tournament but out of the three medalist teams it’s the only one that finishes the tournament with a loss,” USA coach Karch Kiraly said. “So there’s a bittersweet part to that.”

It still marked the fifth medal in as many Olympics for the USA, after winning silver in 2008 in Beijing, silver in 2012 in London, bronze in 2016 in Rio and gold in 2021 in Tokyo.

“Any time you can leave the Olympics with a medal, regardless of the color, it’s good for America and this program,” setter Jordyn Poulter said. “You know, I think we have an expectation in the United States that you should win gold and it should be easy. But it’s not an easy feat to medal at the Olympics and I’m really proud of how our team was able to show up for a really difficult pool and move through and into the knockouts and played on the final day of the Olympics.”

Which, it should be noted, ended before 3 p.m. local time, but with media obligations and family time, there was going to be a short window until heading out.

That’s because the USA players have a 4:30 a.m. bus Monday to the airport to fly to New York, where Tuesday they’re going to be on the Today Show, be part of an event at the Empire State Building and more. And, it should be noted, thank goodness, because the gold-medal victory in Tokyo had no such fanfare.

But coach Kiraly and his staff — which includes NCAA coaches Alfee Reft (UCLA) and Erin Virtue (Michigan), who have to get to work on their respective campuses — have a different agenda Monday. 

“I get to be on the ‘flag flight,’ which is passing the Olympic flag from Paris. It’s getting flown to Los Angeles,” Kiraly said. “Some of us getting to ride with the flag to Los Angeles. How fantastic is that?”

OK, back to the match, which was not fantastic for the USA.

“We didn’t have enough answers for Italy today and they were just too good,” Kiraly said. “They were clearly the class of this tournament.”

Egonu, the opposite, had not only those 18 kills but also four blocks. Outside Myriam Sylla had eight kills and two aces. Outside Catarina Bosetti had seven kills, a block, and an ace and middle Sarah Fahr had six kills and a block. Anna Danesi had two kills and four blocks and Antropova had four kills, a block and an ace. Alessia Orro had three aces as Italy totaled seven and the USA had three. 

“When Catarina Bosetti, she’s hitting under .200 for the tournament, I don’t know what she hit today, but it was some astronomical number,” Kiraly said. “And that’s a sign that we weren’t doing a good job on blocking defense, that even their weakest player went off on us. Horrible blocking performance.”

Bosette had seven kills in 11 swings with one error. Egonu had four errors in 40 attacks.

Jordan Thompson led the USA with eight kills and six digs and Avery Skinner had seven. Annie Drews had five and so did Jordan Larson.

Larson played admirably after having to embrace a new role. She and Kelsey Robinson Cook started as outside hitters in the first match of the tournament against China, but were soon relegated to super-sub roles. Against Italy, with Plummer struggling, Larson had five of those kills and also six digs. 

Four more years?

“No,” she said emphatically with a smile. “Could I do it? For sure, I really believe I could. But I’m good. No.”

Larson needs to get back to her day job as assistant coach at her alma mater, Nebraska.

‘New York and them I’m in practice the next day,” Larson said  “I’m really excited to help our girls. I’ve been watching a lot of video and it fires me up to get back to them.”

Haleigh Washington had four kills and the other middle, Chiaka Ogbogu had three.

“I know a lot of people are probably upset and disappointed because it may not be the color we wanted, but five Olympics in a row of bringing home hardware,” Washington said. “And bringing home hardware in general. So many people were counting us out these Olympics but I think we just ground our way through it. I’m just so proud of the grit and resilience of these women.

“And hardware is hardware.”

She showed off her silver medal,

“It’s just as heavy as the gold,” Washington said with a laugh. “It’s a little more shiny, I think.”

Brazil tops Türkiye for women’s bronze

After the French finished celebrating their men’s gold-medal victory Saturday, Brazil beat Türkiye 25-21, 27-25, 22-25, 25-15. 

Gabi Guimarraes led with 22 kills, five blocks and an ace and Thaisa, who said after this marked the end of her national-team career, had eight kills, seven blocks and two aces. Ana Cristina Souza had nine kllls, three blocks and an ace, and Rosamaria Montebiller had 10 kills.

Melissa Vargas had 22 kills, three blocks and an ace for Türkiye. Vargas finished atop the tournament kills list with 145, well ahead of second-place Gabi, who had 97. Derya Cebecioglu added 12 kills and two aces and Erdem Dundar had six kills and seven blocks.

It marked the third time Brazil won bronze (1996, 2000). It also won gold in 2008 and 2012 and silver in 2021 when it lost to the USA in the final.

Averill tops men’s blockers

USA middle Taylor Averill led the men’s tournament with 16 blocks, one ahead of Germany’s Gyorgy Grozer and Italy’s Gianluca Galassi. 

Italy’s Yuri Romano led with 88 kills, followed by Wilfredo Leon of Poland with 81. The USA’s Matt Anderson was third with 80 and Aaron Russell fourth with 78. Leon also led with 15 aces, four ahead of Japan’s Yuju Nishida Antoine Brizard of France.

All you need is LOVB

Of the 15 USA players here, nine are headed to the new league that starts in January. That includes a few who are most likely finished with national-team play, including Drews, Larson and Robinson Cook. 

Also headed to LOVB instead of going back overseas are Ogbogu, Poulter, Thompson, Washington, libero Justine Wong-Orantes and setter Lauren Carlini. Official alternate Micha Hancock — who replaced Carlini for two matches — and Anna Stevenson Hall, who was here with the team for practices, are also headed to LOVB.

Plummer and middle Dana Rettke are leaving their Italian team and headed to Eczacıbaşı Dynavitin in Türkiye and Skinner will return to her Italian team, Reale Mutua Fenera Chieri.

And USA assistant Tama Miyashiro will be the coach of LOVB Salt Lake.

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