Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 17, 2016 - Serbia and USA will meet in the first semifinal of the women’s volleyball tournament at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Maracanazinho on Thursday.
They already played each other in a Pool B game at Rio 2016 with USA winning by 3-1 (25-17, 21-25, 25-18, 25-19).
Before that the two teams had met 12 times on the global stage recording eight American wins and four Serbian victories.
Serbia and USA had an Olympic encounter during the preliminary round at London 2012. On August 3 of that year the North Americans achieved a 3-0 (25-17, 25-20, 25-16) shutout of their southern European opponents.
The most recent meeting between the two squads before the current Games occurred at the FIVB Volleyball World Cup in Japan last year. On August 23, 2015 in Matsumoto it was Serbia that emerged victorious after five sets - 3-2 (25-20, 22-25, 18-25, 25-19, 15-6).
For the Balkan team this is a historic first participation among the best four at an Olympic Games. To get to this semifinal, Serbia finished third in Pool B and then won their quarterfinal with Russia with a spectacular shutout.
Their best scorers at Rio 2016, Tijana Boskovic with 94 points and Brankica Mihajlovic with 88, are placed third and fourth, respectively, in the overall ranking.
Milena Rasic with 0.48 aces per set and Tijana Boskovic with 0.38 occupy the top two spots on the Best Servers chart. Libero Silvija Popovic leads the tournament’s diggers with 2.24 digs per set.
This is the sixth time USA make it among the top four at an Olympic Games with silver medals from the last two editions – Beijing 2008 and London 2012. They have never reached the Olympic gold though. The Americans are still unbeaten at Rio 2016. They won Pool B before shutting out Japan in the quarterfinals.
Foluke Akindarewo, who has scored 80 points for the United States, ranks fifth in the Best Scorers chart. She also tops the Best Spikers chart with a 45.13% efficiency rate in offence.
Kayla Banwarth with 47.32% excellents and Jordan Larson-Burbach with 44.44% occupy the top two positions in the Best Receivers ranking, while Alisha Glass leads the Best Setters chart.