Serbia complete the women's Olympic podium!
Recap
Following their heartbreaking semifinal loss to USA, Serbia still had a chance to win the bronze medal. On Sunday Serbians faced Koreans, who lost their own semifinal to Brazil. Serbia established the domination in the match straight away and claimed the victory in straight sets, completing the podium of Tokyo 2020.
Korea vs Serbia 0-3 (18-25, 15-25, 15-25)
Serbia managed to recover from their lost semifinal and bring new energy to their Sunday clash against Korea. Serbians dominated in all elements, scoring 44 winning spikes, 7 stuff blocks and 7 aces. Koreans were only close to match Serbia’s serving point, scoring 5 aces, but they trailed far behind having 25 winning spikes and 2 stuff blocks. Tijana Boskovic was unsurprisingly the best scorer for her team and in the entire match, scoring 33 points, including 25 winning spikes, 2 blocks and 6 aces. It was her performance at the service line that stunned and caused troubles to the opposite side. Korean Kim Yeon Koung scored 11 points.
This is a second Olympic medal in the history of Serbian women's team. Serbia won silver medal at Rio 2016, after playing in the final against China.
Tijana Boskovic was included in the Olympic Games volleyball Dream Team as the Best Opposite.
Dream Team:
MVP - Jordan Larsaon (USA)
Best Outside Hitters - Jordan Larson (USA) and Michelle BArtsch-Hackley (USA)
Best Middle Blockers - Haleigh Washington (USA) and Caroline De Oliveira Saad Gattaz (BRA)
Best Opposite - Tijana Boskovic (SRB)
Best Setter - Jordyn Poulter (USA)
Best Libero - Justine Wong-Orantes (USA)
Maja Ognjenovic“Honestly, this was just one really tough tournament for us. Everybody was saying that our group was much easier, which I agree completely that group B was much stronger than ours, but then, on the other side, after the loss against Brazil, it was not easy to come back stronger. I think we have to be happy (with bronze medal). I don't want to give names, but we had some small changes and I think that this is a big success for this generation.”
Setter of Serbia
Stefano Lavarini"It's like a dream come true. Our target was to reach the quarterfinals. Serbia was totally focused and did not give us a chance to compete for the bronze. The difference in levels of play between the two teams was quite clear today but still it's an outstanding result for Korea."
Coach of Korea
Zoran Terzić“I'm very, very happy about the results in this Olympic Games because, as you know, we've had a lot of problems… We really tried to make a better medal, maybe play the finals, but for this Olympics, it was more than enough. I really very happy with this generation taking one more medal. It means a lot.”
Coach of Serbia
Maja Ognjenovic“I am really happy about our success. It was not an easy tournament at all, especially after the loss to USA. It was not easy to prepare mentally and physically for today. We knew Korea is a good team, but we had faith and wanted this medal so strongly. We played Korea in the group, so we were really well-prepared. They did a great job against Turkey, and no one expected them in the semifinals. They showed good volleyball, but I’m really happy that we did our job and won straight sets.”
Setter of Serbia