5 alive: USA women grind to Paris Olympics volleyball victory over Serbia

PARIS — There is no rule that USA Volleyball teams have to go five in these Olympics.

But …

Monday, the USA women lost the first two sets to China and won the next two before losing in five.

Tuesday, the USA men went up 2-0 on Germany and had to hold on for a five-set victory.

And then Wednesday, the USA women came out and completely overpowered Serbia in the first two sets. A sweep? No way, because ultimately the Americans had to come away with a 25-17, 25-20, 20-25, 14-25, 17-15 victory.

“It was a fun puzzle to solve. Things were going pretty easily in the first two, but then the real work starts when Serbia starts playing the way they’re capable of playing,” USA coach Karch Kiraly said. “That’s a really, really good team across the net with one of the world’s best players.”

That’s for sure, because left-handed opposite Tijana Boskovic had 27 kills, two blocks, two aces and seven digs. But more on her later.

The USA was up 14-11 when Serbia sided out. It was 14-13 on Maja Aleksic’s block of Kathryn Plummer. And the lead was squandered when the Americans completely botched the next possession.

“We can’t even get it over the net,” Kiraly said, shaking his head. “It was 13-year-old club volleyball at 14-13. And that’s killer because we have Annie (Drews), we have Plum, what we have to do is put the ball 20 feet in the air and set Plum on the left or Annie on the right and we could neither.

“Those are the tough moments of coaching, when everybody knows what to do but it’s the Olympics and it’s not always easy to do. We had to do it the really hard way.”

It was, indeed, a 14-14 gut check, because the USA, had it lost the match, most likely was not going to get out of pool play into the quarterfinals.

“Those are the big moments and that’s what the Olympic Games are all about,” USA middle Haleigh Washington said. “How do you respond in the big moments. At one point I was at the net and thought that this is going to who can play the cleanest volleyball the longest.”

Drews got a kill to give the USA a 15-14 lead, but Boskovic got her last kill of the match.

The Americans went up 16-15 on another kill by Drews and then survived a gritty final point that included sparkling defense by teams, including a big dig by setter Jordyn Poulter, before Serbia’s Aleksandra Uzelac hit out of bounds to end it.

“And here we are, lucky in some…