The women's volleyball competition continued with four matches of pool play on Sunday at the Paris Olympics.
Women's Pool C: Italy 3, Turkiye 0
No. 1-ranked Italy swept the former No. 1 team Turkiye in straight sets to open the women's volleyball competition on Sunday at South Paris Arena.
From the start, things were not clicking for Turkiye as Italy breezed to a 25-14 win in the first set.
Turkiye unraveled in the second set as Italy continued to be relentless with hits, aces and blocks throughout. The Italians won the second set, 25-16.
The Turkish team delivered a stronger third set, but it was still not enough to overcome the Italians. Paola Egonu finished off a stellar match with an ace to secure the 25-21 victory and the 3-0 match victory.
Egonu finished the match with a team-leading 20 points, while Myriam Sylla contributed 11 points.
Italy will now advance confidently into the quarterfinals. The Italians have never finished higher than fifth at the Olympics.
Women's Pool A: Team USA 3, France 0
Team USA faced a stiff challenge from France but was eventually able to make its way through to the quarterfinals with a straight-sets win.
The Americans seemed in control of the first set up 22-17, but France scored six straight points to take the lead and send it into overtime. The U.S. survived a set point and went on to win the set 29-27, which wrapped up its place in the quarterfinals.
There was still plenty to play for, as taking all three points would give the Americans a better shot at a higher seed and a more favorable matchup.
Nearly the same exact thing happened to the Americans in the second set. This time they were up 20-14, and France answered answered with seven straight points to go back in front. France held three set points and the Americans fought all of them off to take another 29-27 win.
Finally in the third the Americans were able to close out a set and won 25-20, but the lack of finishing in the first and second has to raise concerns for head coach, Karch Karaily.
Annie Drews was phenomenal once again, leading the way for the Americans with 15 points on 15/37 swings. Haleigh Washington, Kathryn Plummer and Chiaka Ogbogu led an incredible defensive effort by the Americans, combining for eight of the team's 12 blocks.
Pool A wraps up with China and Serbia facing off, and it will be hard for the Americans to hold on to the top spot in Pool A. Still, the win puts them in good position to earn a more favorable matchup in the quarterfinals, which begin Tuesday.
Women's Pool A: China 3, Serbia 1
This match was a battle for supremacy in Pool A and nobody reigned more supreme than Serbia's Tijana Boskovic.
Serbia's superstar brought that thunderous left arm and absolutely took over the match with it. The reigning world championships MVP scored 12 of Serbia's 25 points in its first set win on 10/17 swings with two aces.
Boskovic stayed hot in the second but China was able to use a great team effort to even the match at a set apiece with a 25-20 win. Li Yingying led the way through two with 11 points, and China had four scorers with more than six.
The third set got absolutely wild as China took a 21-17 lead before Serbia answered with four straight points to tie it. China closed on a 4-1 run to take the set behind Li's dominance and 10 points each from Wang Yuanyuan and Gong Xiangyu. Boskovkic stayed hot with nine more points, willing her team back into the set, but was unable to deliver the closing blow.
In the end, China was just too much as Serbia simply did not get enough contributions from their other stars outside of Boskovic, who finished with 39 kills. No other player for Serbia finished in double digits, while China had three. Li finished with 28, Gong finished with 17 and Wang finished with 11.
Serbia managed to force the fourth set into overtime, but China closed it out to a 29-27 win.
The win gives China all three points and they finish atop Pool C with eight total. It also means the Americans finish in second in the pool, while Serbia qualifies as one of the two best third-place teams.
Women's Pool B: Brazil 3, Poland 0
With both these teams having won their first two matches, this was a battle for positioning in the knockout rounds as the two teams looked to win Pool B and earn a more favorable matchup.
Brazil took the first set fairly comfortably, before the set of the tournament unfolded in Set 2. Poland held set point at 24-21, but Brazil survived all three set points to tie it up and send it to overtime. From there, chaos ensued. Each team survived six set points until Brazil finally killed it off at 38-36. The 74 points scored in the set were by far the most of any set in the tournament on either side so far.
It was all about the stars for Brazil as Gabi led the way with 18 and Rosamaria followed right behind with 15 through two. Fittingly, it was Gabi who decided she had enough and put the ball on the floor with a massive spike to finish a wild second set.
From there it was all Brazil as the South American nation rolled Poland 25-14 in the third set on its way to a straight-sets win. With the win, Brazil topped the group and, by virtue of not losing a set, is the top overall seed in the knockout rounds.