The U.S. Women's Volleyball Team Sweeps Poland, Setting Up a Matchup Against Brazil in the Semis

PARIS — The pursuit to defend an Olympic title continued for U.S. women’s volleyball with a 3-0 quarterfinal sweep of Poland on Tuesday afternoon at South Paris Arena 1. The 25-22, 25-14, 25-20 victory advanced the U.S. to a semifinal match against Brazil, a country that defeated the Americans in the gold medal match in two of the last three Olympic tournaments.

A semifinal victory on Thursday afternoon would send the U.S. to its fifth Olympic final and fourth in the last five.

“I think if you said we would sweep anyone in this tournament I’d be surprised,” said team captain Jordyn Poulter.

The U.S. started pool play in a bit of a hole after dropping their first match 3-2 against China. They recovered from the loss with a narrow 3-2 win over Serbia last Wednesday, followed by a 3-0 victory against host country France on Sunday. On Tuesday, against a Poland team ranked No. 4 in the world, a dominant second set energized each player to another level.

“It felt almost like a flow state,” outside hitter Avery Skinner said of the second set. “Everything was rolling with us. When you feel the support of your teammates it's easy to go after it.”

There was early trouble in the third set with Poland up 6-0. The U.S. found itself in a similar situation against Serbia last week, starting to lose control early in the third set after taking the first two. However, the Americans rallied to tie the score at 13-13 thanks to a crucial block by middle Chiaka Ogbogu.

“We definitely made quicker changes to try and stop the bleeding,” said coach Karch Kiraly. “We had them down. We wanted to keep them down. I didn’t like that start, but it was a really nice recovery.”

Skinner, a first-time Olympian, and veteran Annie Drews were two huge factors in the U.S. dominance, acting as offensive weapons. The two combined for a total of 25 points and 53 attacks to lead the team. Despite her success, Skinner was subbed out for four-time Olympian Jordan Larson during those struggles in the third set.

“She’s going to be fantastic for the rest of this tournament,” said Kiraly of Skinner. “At that point I just felt like we needed to stabilize. We needed to lower the mistakes and lower the amount of free points we were giving them.”

The tactic proved effective as the U.S. made it an early evening. The quarterfinal victory resulted in a fifth straight Olympic semifinal appearance for the U.S. Three years ago at Tokyo, the U.S. took down Serbia and went on to a matchup with Brazil in the gold medal game, securing a first Olympic title in straight sets. The Americans will face Brazil once again, but this time with a trip to play for back-to-back gold on the line. Brazil has been impressive in Paris so far, going undefeated in pool play and taking down the Dominican Republic 3-0 in its quarterfinal.

“They’re playing really well right now,” said Kiraly of Brazil. “They’ve got firepower also, along with two exceptional middles. It’s a little like the firepower we have, with two exceptional middles who have been playing fantastic tournaments.”

The powerhouses anticipated that they would face each other in Paris. With that in mind, Kiraly reached out to Brazilian head coach José Roberto Lages Guimarães months ago to schedule a scrimmage between the two teams. When it was official the teams would not be in the same pool, the coaches arranged for the U.S. to host Brazil for a scrimmage at its training center in Paris two days before the Opening Ceremony.

“That was really fun to have them,” said Kiraly. “We felt like we both helped each other prepare for our respective pools, and now we're excited to battle a team that is really hot right now. They're going to be tough.”

The Americans will hope to take what they learned from that friendly scrimmage and apply it to a less-friendly semifinal on Thursday.

Hanna Barton is writing for Team USA as a graduate student in the Sports Capital Journalism Program at Indiana University Indianapolis.