At Arena Gliwice in Poland on Wednesday, Serbia defeated the United States of America in a volleyball women’s world championship semifinal match by a score of 3-1 (25-21, 25-20, 17-25, 25-23).

This victory kept Serbia on track to defend their title and advanced them to Saturday’s championship match of the FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship 2022.

It is the second time the nation from southern Europe will play in a World Championship final; they won the first one four years ago in Japan. Meanwhile, the United States of America will try to make it to their sixth podium by winning the bronze medal match on Saturday in the Netherlands. This will be the nation’s second appearance in a World Championship final.

Tijana Boskovic, the top opposite player for Serbia and the team captain, had an outstanding performance on the court once again and earned the highest point total of the match with 33 points, including a kill block. Her overall success percentage was 59%, and she managed to spike for 32 points.

Bianka Busa, an outside hitter, added 15 more points to the team’s total and contributed to their triumph. Kelsey Robinson, the outside player for the United States and the team captain, had the most points for her team with 18, followed by Andrea Drews, who had 14.

The United States of America jumped out to an early 2-0 lead thanks to a strong attack by Drews and an ace serve from outside hitter Alexandra Frantti. Almost quickly, Serbia responded, and after Boskovic scored two spiking points in a row, they seized a 3-2 lead in the match. An ace served by the American team’s setter, Jordyn Poulter, brought the score back to even at 8-8 after the difference between the teams had grown to two points at 8-6.

On the other hand, the Europeans were able to pull ahead of the Americans and take a six-point lead thanks to Boskovic and Brankica Mihajlovic, who played outside (19-13, 20-14). The United States of America got back within two points, 20-18, with to a run of four consecutive points that were capped off by another ace serve from Frantti. However, this was not close enough to catch up to their opponent. At 24-19 in the second set, Boskovic scored her 10th point of the match to bring set point into play. After a few moments, middle blocker Jovana Stevanovic finished things off by capitalizing on a brilliant back-slide set to bring the score to 25-21.

Up to the score of 8-8, the second set was quite close, but then Serbia went on a scoring run of four points in a row, with Stevanovic scoring a spike for 11-8 and blocking for 12-8. The United States of America battled on to catch up and tie the score at 14-14, and they even took the lead at 15-14 thanks to a monster bock by middle Haleigh Washington.

However, shortly after that, Stevanovic hammered two consecutive aces to put Serbia back in control at 17-15, and this time it was for good. During this time, Boskovic scored another ten points on offense, including the final two points of the set (25-20). The set ended with a score of 24-20.

In the third set, the advantage that the Serbian setter Bojana Drca gained when she spiked on two balls to make the score 6-5 and then followed it up with an ace to make the score 7-5 was short-lived. After that, the United States of America took the lead with an 8-7 advantage.

After the game was tied at 11-11, the substitute Kara Bajema scored two points in a succession, including a block-out hit and an ace, to kick off an incredible run by the Americans that resulted in 18-10. Robinson provided leadership for her colleagues by driving the assaults that led to a nine-point score for the set and a set point at 24-16, which Drews converted into a 25-17 triumph with a powerful swing.

In the fourth set, Serbia jumped out to an early lead of 8-4, but the United States of America began to have success with their serving, which assisted in bringing them back into the match. First, Poulter scored an ace to cut the deficit in half and bring the score to 8-6. Then, middle Chiaka Ogbogu tied the match at 10-10 with an ace that was served off the net.

Finally, Drews scored two serving points in a row to take the lead 13-11. Despite this, the current world champions had no intention of backing down, and they were able to regain control thanks to an ace of their own from Busa, which brought the score to 17-16. Once again pumped up for the attack, Boskovic was determined to drive her team to victory. She earned match point at 24-21 and then delivered the game-winning point at 25-23, which she did on her way to adding another 10 points to her total for the set.

“I am at a loss for words!” Mina Popovic, a middle blocker for Serbia, was quoted saying after the match that their team had a “such a difficult job” today because “we all know that USA are one of the top teams and we knew that it was going to be incredibly hard.” “The match we played yesterday was the most difficult one we’ve had to face at this tournament. After that, we tried to get as much rest as we could in order to clear our heads.” In today’s match, there was a little bit of everything, and this time it was on our side.

The other semifinal, which will feature a matchup between Italy and Brazil, will take place on Thursday at local time 20:00 in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands (18:00 GMT).

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