China wins third gold medal in women’s Olympic volleyball

The 2016 Olympic women’s volleyball tournament wrapped up on Saturday, and China has won the gold medal in a 3-1 victory over Serbia. It’s the third time the Chinese women’s team has won gold in this event, with victories in 1984 and 2004.

Serbia actually got off to the better start in the final match. They jumped out to a 12-7 lead in the first set and never fully let go of it, eventually cruising to a 25-19 win and a 1-0 advantage. China wasted no time bouncing back, though, taking an 8-4 lead in the second set and eventually running away with a 25-17 victory to even the match at 1-1.

The next two sets were much closer, but the Chinese came out on top each time. They grabbed a commanding 19-11 lead in the third set, but they let Serbia creep back into it by narrowing the score down to 22-21. China recovered, though, to take four of the next five points and a 25-22 decision. The fourth set was a seesaw -- there were 15 ties, and no team took a lead of more than three points at any time. The score eventually knotted at 20, and then again at 21, 22, and 23, before China secured the final two points to win the set and the match.

With the victory, Chinese coach “Jenny” Lang Ping became the first person to win Olympic gold as both a coach and a player. Meanwhile, this was the first volleyball medal for Serbia since it began competing as its own independent country in 2008.

The bronze medal in the tournament went to the United States, who beat the Netherlands in four sets earlier on Saturday by the score of 25-23, 25-27, 25-22, 25-19. The US, who despite their prominence on the beach has never won Olympic gold in women’s indoor volleyball, reached the bronze medal match after being upset by the Serbians in the semifinals.