Four games are on the slate once again at the 2024 Paris Olympics volleyball tournament with two from each the men's and women's side. Entering the final matchday on the women's side, there were still plenty of fates to be determined based on where the dominoes fell.
First up on the women's side, the Dominican Republic took on the Netherlands and Japan faced Kenya. On the men's side, two of the top teams in the world, Poland and Italy, squared off for supremacy in Pool B while Canada and Serbia wrapped up the men's pool play schedule against each other.
Women's Pool C: Dominican Republic 3, Netherlands 1
The Netherlands entered the tournament as one of the teams that figured to contend for the final third-place spot and advance to the knockout rounds. When the eighth-ranked Dutch came away from their first two games with just a single point, they put themselves in a dire position.
Their position worsened Saturday morning when they were upset by the 11th-ranked Dominican Republic and crashed out of the tournament in embarrassing fashion.
The Dominicans dropped a very tight first set, 25-22, but responded back with three straight set wins to complete one of the bigger upsets in the tournament so far.
Coming in, Pool C always looked the toughest group, as the Netherlands learned the hard way.
Yonkaira Paola Peña Isabel was the dominant player of the match with 28 points on 26/63 swings. No other played on either side had more than 13.
With the win, the Dominican Republic has advanced to the quarterfinals, as it has in its previous two Olympic appearances. The Dominicans will be hoping to better their previous Olympic appearances, when they lost in the quarterfinals both times.
Women's Pool B: Japan 3, Kenya 0
With the Dominican Republic's win over the Netherlands, Japan was eliminated from the tournament. This is the second-straight Olympics in which Japan has crashed out in pool play, a massive disappointment for a country that was on the medal stand not too long ago at London 2012.
The Japanese also entered having finished second at the most recent Volleyball Nations League and looked like a dark horse in the tournament.
They got a brutal draw with Poland and Brazil in their group and failed to pick up a single point from their first two games, winning only a single set. That left only a game against Keyna to send out their captain, Sarina Nishida, out on a good note. The 28-year-old announced before the Olympics started this would be her last tournament with the Japanese national team.
The Japanese cruised to victory with a straight-sets win in dominant fashion, 25-17 25-22 25-12. Nishida earned the elusive Oympic victory, but this could not have been the ending to her national team career that she imagined.
For Kenya, the team leaves Paris without winning a set and has now only won two of the 54 sets in which its team has played at the Olympic Games.
Men's Pool B: Italy 3, Poland 1
Both these teams had already clinched their spot in the quarterfinals, but there was still plenty to play for with the top spot in Pool B on the line.
With Poland ranked No. 1 and Italy ranked No. 3, it stacked up to be the matchup of the tournament so far. Early on, it did not play out that was as Italy dominated the first two sets.
The Italians came out firing with an extremely efficient 11/20 attacking in the first set, led by Yuri Romano who had 5 points on 3/5 swings and Danielle Lavia who had 4 points on 4/6. The Italians did it on defense as well, with 11 digs — compared to two for Poland — and four blocks.
Italy took the first set, 25-15, then controlled the second set with a 25-18 win.
The third set was closet to what was expected coming into the match as Poland managed to stay alive with a very tight 26-24 win. Poland's star player, Wilfredo Leon, was held extremely quiet by his standards. He had just eight points on 7/17 swings through three sets, uncharacteristic of the guy who is typically Poland's scoring machine.
Leon remained quiet as the Italians dominated the fourth set again en route to victory. Leon finished with just nine points, while three Italians finished in double digits. Romano led the way with 19, Lavia had 12 and, after a slow start, Italy's superstar, Alessandro Michieletto, finished with 16 on 14/28 swings.
For Italy, the dominant performance bodes well for their outlook in the knockout rounds. On the other end, after crashing out in the quarterfinals at the last five Olympics, this was a huge test for Poland — a team looking to go deep in the tournament — and it came up short.
Men's Pool A: Serbia 3, Canada 2
Both Serbia and Canada entered knowing their team's would not be advancing. That did not stop the two from battling through a wild match to wrap up their Olympic tournaments.
Canada dominated the first set, winning 25-16, then took a much-closer second set, 25-22, to open up a 2-0 set lead.
However, Serbia did not lay down and fought back to try and end its tournament on a positive note. Serbia controlled the third and fourth sets, winning 25-19 in each, to force a decisive fifth set.
That fifth set looked to be over with Serbia up 14-12, but Canada came back from the brink to tie it at 14. The Canadians survived two more match points, but Serbia finally killed it off at 18-16 for the victory.
The Canadians had four players with kills in double figures including Stephen Timothy Maar who had 28 and Eric Loeppy with 20. Serbia's leading scorer was Aleksandar Atanasijevic with 19 kills on 14/36 swings.
Both of these sides were top-ten teams entering the tournament and had hopes of making the quarterfinals. Instead, Canada bowed out with only a single point and Serbia will go home with just the one win and three points to show. It is hard not to think of these two as the two of the biggest disappointments in the tournament.