Olympics volleyball: Italy, France reverse sweep into semis; USA women play Poland

PARIS — Sacrebleu! 

Yes, we used that French phrase basically in place of what the hell Sunday for the USA women’s match, but after Monday on the men’s side, well, holy blue. Or something like that.

To wit: Two reverse sweeps in the first three matches in the Paris Olympics volleyball, including France over Germany in the third match of the day that put sold-out South Paris Arena I into Le Bleu bedlam.

It would be quite an understatment to say it had been quite a day by the time the men took the court at 9 p.m. local time for its quarterfinal match against Brazil.

In the first match, Poland knocked out Slovenia to make it to the semifinals since the 1980 Moscow Games. Poland lost in the quarterfinals in each of the last five Olympics.

Poland plays the winner of the USA-Brazil match.

Then Italy — down 24-21 in the third set! — pulled off a reverse sweep to beat Japan, going overtime in each of the last three sets. 

Finally, France rebounded against Germany in a tremendous battle.

The recaps follow, but first a look at Tuesday’s women’s quarterfinals.

Paris Olympics women’s volleyball quarterfinals

All times Paris local, which is 6 hours ahead of Eastern, 9 hours ahead of Pacific:

9 .m. — China vs. Turkiye
1 p.m. — Brazil vs. Dominican Republic
5 p.m. — USA vs. Poland
9 p.m. — Italy vs. Serbia

In these Olympics, the USA lost to China in the opener. China won the first two sets, the Americans stormed back and had an 8-7 lead in the fifth before falling 25-20, 25-19, 17-25, 20-25, 15-13.  They bounced back with a five-set victory over Serbia, winning in the same fashion as they lost, 25-17, 25-20, 20-25, 14-25, 17-15. Then Sunday the USA battled to a sweep of France 29-27, 29-27, 25-20. 

The offensive star has been veteran left-handed opposite Annie Drews, who has led her team in kills in all three matches with 26 against China, 15 against Serbia and 15 more against France. Her total of 56 ranks fourth in the Olympics behind lefty opposite Tijana Boskovic of Serbia (75), righty opposite Melissa Vargas of Türkiye (68) and Li Yingying, the lefty outside hitter for China (61).

In Volleyball Nations League, the USA lost to Poland in four on June 1 in Arlington, Texas. Drews did not play in the 29-27, 25-22, 20-25, 25-23 setback. Jordan Larson led with 20 kills and a block and the other Olympic opposite, Jordan Thompson, had 16 kills, a block and an ace. Kathryn Plummer had six kills and three blocks and the other starting Olympic outside, Avery Skinner, had seven kills and a block.

In these Olympics, Poland beat Japan in four, swept Kenya and got swept by Brazil. Magdalena Stysiak leads Poland with 35 kills.

Poland advances with sweep of Slovenia

Poland won 25-20, 24-26, 25-19, 25-20 and celebrated like it was 1980.

“I think the tears described it best,” Poland’s Jakub Kochanowski said. “I know how difficult it is after playing great volleyball in the group stage to keep it in the quarterfinals.

“Every Polish national team in volleyball in previous Olympic Games were playing great volleyball in the pool stages and, as the favorite in the quarterfinal, it’s very difficult to keep it.

“Maybe that was the spell (to break), to not play the greatest volleyball in the group stage, but being mentally tough and showing the best volleyball from the quarterfinal.”

Wilfredo Leon led with 14 kills, a block and five aces. Bartosz Kurek had 18 kills and an ace. Kochanowski had eight kills, a block and an ace and Tomasz Fornal had four kills, three blocks and two aces. Poland had 12 aces to Slovenia’s five.

Slovenia’s Klemen Cebulj had 16 kills and Tine Urnaut 10 kills, a block and two aces.

“We played great volleyball in the group. We won 3-1 against Canada, 3-0 against Serbia and 3-2 against the Olympic champions France in front of their home crowd,” Slovenia’s Rok Mozic said.

“Today we arrived at a Poland team that was very motivated. They played amazing volleyball.”

Italy pulls off reverse sweep of Japan

Italy awaited the France-Germany winner after its incredible 20-25, 23-25, 27-25, 26-24, 17-15 victory. 

“Being two sets down and trailing 24-21 (in the third set), I don’t know how we were able to turn it around,” Italy’s Alessandro Michieletto said.

“We weren’t perfect, me included, but we clung on by our fingernails and took the win. We had some luck, we did some things well. But we didn’t want to go home today.”
Added teammate Riccardo Sbertoli, “We lost this game two or three times, and then we won it once — but the right one.”

Michieletto led Italy with 22 kills and two blocks. Daniele Lavia had 16 kills, two blocks and an ace and Yuri Romano had 16 kills, a block and an ace.

“It was distressing. They are an incredible team,” setter Simone Giannelli said. “I said it before the Olympic Games, whoever meets Japan will be fatigued. We met them and I knew it would be a match like this. To win this, you had to win it with a tiebreak.”

Japan’s incredible Yuki Ishikawa had 30 kills and two aces. Yuji Nishida added 18 kills, a block and three aces. Ran Takahashi added 13 kills, a block and two aces.

“We’re so disappointed because we were so close to reaching the semifinals,” said Japan Philippe Blain, who is leaving the program after seven years. “We dreamed of being able to get a medal, but that won’t be the case. We tried to stay aggressive, focused but we were just missing a point.”

France thrills the home-country crowd

This one had a little bit of everything, including Germany getting a red card and losing a point at 8-5 in the fifth, although it closed the gap to one point, the last at 13-12. Germany sailed its last three serves past the baseline, including the match-ender by Ruben Schott.

In the end, France moved on with an 18-25, 26-28, 25-20, 25-21, 15-13 victory and plays Italy. 

Earvin Ngapeth had 17 kills, three blocks and two aces for France, which won gold in the Tokyo Olympics. Trevor Clevenot had 19 kills and a block and Theo Faure had eight kills, two blocks and an ace. Barthelemy Chinenyeze had four kills, four blocks and an ace. Both teams had 12 blocks.

Germany’s Gyorgy Grozer capped his tremendous tournament with 17 kills, four blocks and an ace. Anton Brehme had 12 kills and two blocks and Krick had 10 skills and four blocks. Moritz Reichert had 12 kills and a block and Moritz Karlitzek had 11 kills and an ace.

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