By Rohith Nair
PARIS (Reuters) -Top-ranked Italy dominated the United States to win the Olympic women’s volleyball final on Sunday, crushing the defending champions in straight sets to claim their first gold medal on the final day of the Games.
Italy came into the Olympics as the Volleyball Nations League champions and did not lose a match en route to gold, dropping one set in the pool stage and none in the knockouts.
As Italy sealed a 25-18 25-20 25-17 victory, Paola Egonu was the star of the show after the 25-year-old, one of the top scorers in the tournament in Paris, finished with 22 points and four blocks.
“I am so happy, so proud, I can’t describe the joy for this group of girls… This year has been very beautiful,” Egonu said.
The Americans had won a medal at the last five Olympics and the silver was their seventh overall – more than any other country in women’s volleyball – but they were no match for Italy on Sunday.
Egonu gave Italy a blistering start, with the 6-foot 5-inch opposite heavily involved in every rally on both defence at the net and in attack, forcing the Americans into an early timeout as they fell behind.
Although the U.S. staged a comeback, Egonu sealed the opening set with a spike that gave American Chiaka Ogbogu no chance of recovering.
The second set was neck-and-neck at the start before a kill from Myriam Sylla and monster blocks from Anna Danesi and Sarah Fahr gave Italy a lead to build on.
The U.S. fought their way back again, but Egonu made no mistake on set point to make it 2-0, dealing a huge psychological blow to the Americans, who made errors in the third set.
Italy, meanwhile, continued to impress at the net with 11 blocks in total while the Americans failed to make a single block in the match.
As Italy celebrated every point, their victory seemed inevitable and the gold medal came when Jordan Thompson’s spike went wide as the Italian substitutes stormed the court and hugged their teammates who fell to their knees.
Italy’s Sarah Fahr said they did not expect to win in straight sets.
“In Tokyo we were all so sad when we went out in the quarter-finals. It was something we wanted to achieve… and now being here in Paris, arriving in the finals and winning is crazy,” she said.
American Avery Skinner was disappointed to lose the gold but said they still had so much to be proud of.
“At the beginning of the summer we did not think we were going to be here,” she said.
“I think I spoke to Jordan after the last match and she said we’re on ‘Plan F’ here and we were in the final.”
On Saturday, Brazil denied Turkey a first Olympic medal in women’s volleyball when the South Americans won the bronze medal match 3-1.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Paris; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Ken Ferris)
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