USA women's volleyball defeats Brazil, advances to gold medal match

The USA defeated Brazil in the semi-final for women’s indoor volleyball. With that, the Americans are advancing to the gold medal match.

Italy and Türkiye are going to be playing one another in the other semi-final match. The winner of that game is going to advance to take on the USA. The loser will go on to play Brazil in the bronze medal match.

It was an incredibly competitive match between the USA and Brazil. The Americans took the first and third sets while the Brazilians took the second and fourth sets. That forced a winner-take-all fifth set that would go to 15 points instead of the 25 that the previous four sets had gone. Again, it was tightly contested but the Americans were able to do just enough to win.

The USA won Pool A in dominant fashion. The Americans took their pool match in straight sets from France. They also won both of their matches against China and Serbia. Then, in the quarterfinals, Team USA beat Team Poland in straight sets.

Across the way, Brazil was even more dominant and hadn’t dropped a single set before running into the Americans.

The first and fourth sets of the semi-final were tight, with the Americans and Brazilians each winning one of those two sets by just two points. Then, on the second and third sets, each side also took a set in fairly dominant fashion. Amid that, perhaps the most important stretch was the beginning of the third set when the American team was able to steal momentum back from the Brazilians.

Women’s indoor volleyball was first played at the Olympics in 1964. Since then, the USA has won a gold medal, three silver medals, and two bronze medals for a total of six medals. That’s a tie with the Soviet Union, China, and Japan for the most overall medals won. Regardless of what happens moving forward, the USA will break that tie and become the country with the most overall medals in women’s indoor volleyball.

It also makes the United States one of just six countries to win gold in women’s indoor volleyball. A second gold would put the USA in a tie with Brazil and Japan.

The USA won its first gold medal in women’s indoor volleyball at the Tokyo Olympics, which were originally scheduled for 2020 but played in 2021. They have won a medal of some kind every year since 2008. So, this has been a sport where the USA is gaining on its peers.

The gold medal match will be played on Sunday, August 11th at 7 a.m. EST.