Serbia gear up for another Olympic semifinal against USA
Feature
Serbia are the only women’s team that have reached semifinals at Tokyo 2020. The quarterfinals were not as successful for Turkey, ROC and Italy, with the latter being eliminated by Serbians. Now the team is set to face USA and it’s difficult not to think about their previous semifinal Olympic encounter from five years ago. Back then Serbians succeeded in five sets. Can they repeat that and fight for the gold medal once again?
It was a dramatic game, worthy of the Olympic Games. Serbia led 2-1 in sets when USA tied after claiming the fourth part. In the tie-break USA went 10-12 behind, but a quick spike by Milena Rasic, then an error from USA followed by Rasic helped Serbia to go 13-12 across. The team used their first match point when Tijana Boskovic, only a 19-year old at that time, scored in the counter attack, taking her team to their first ever Olympic final.
“We know each other very well, so I hope we are going to have another good match.”, said Maja Ognjenovic when asked about the upcoming semifinal with USA.
Serbia recorded a great performance in Pool A, losing only one match against Brazil. Every single victory came in straight sets, including their quarterfinal clash against Italy. USA topped Pool B, following their successful campaign in preliminary round. Their only loss came against ROC, but Americans secured wins against the likes of China, Turkey and Italy.
Five years since their semifinal clash in Rio 2016, Serbian team continues to embrace their bets players: Maja Ognjenovic, Brankica Mihajlovic, Milena Rasic and their star Tijana Boskovic. The opposite quickly became the top scorer in the competition, leading her team across five games so far. Boskovic have scored 140 points so far, with the next best scorer - Paola Egonu - trailing behind with 126 points. Tijana is also top of the Best Attackers statistics with 124 winning spikes at 54.63% success rate. Their best point-score in a single match came against the Olympic Games host, Japan, when she scored 34 points.
“She’s really one in a million.”, Ognjenovic described her teammate. “This is a big advantage for the team. When you know there is someone who will always score… For me as a setter but also for the team. It’s much, much easier to play with her.”
Maja Ognjenovic“I’ve said many times that Tijana Boskovic one of the greatest players that I’ve played with. Even though she’s only 24-years old. I remember that in 2014 when she came in the national team in the world championship. Even in that time when she was 17 I could see she was one of the biggest talents and was going to be one of the greatest players.”
Setter of Serbia
But Ognjenovic is one of the best talents in her position and one of the most experienced too. The four-time Best Setter of the European Championships (2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019) is the brain behind Serbia’s team. Maja is competing at her fourth Olympics, having previously played at Beijing 2008, London 2012 and rio 2016. And it doesn’t seem like she is anywhere close to wrapping things up!
“Everyone is asking me, when are you going to finish? How is it possible to continue at that age? But I think for the setters it is very specific because the older we get the better we are.”, she said after the quarterfinal with Italy.
“Now I’m enjoying it too much and on the court it’s easy to see me playing with a smile.”
It seems like the perfect way to approach her time at the Olympic Games! The only thing that is missing now is the gold medal… Can Serbia make it past their semifinal? We will find out on Friday.
The semifinal between Serbia and USA will take place in Ariake Arena in Tokyo, at 4:00 GMT.