The U.S. women’s volleyball team didn’t get to play for a medal of any color in its world championship title defense.
The Americans were bounced in the penultimate, six-team round with five-set losses to China and the Netherlands. China, the Netherlands, Italy and Serbia will play for the medals later this week.
The U.S., which won its first major tournament title of any kind at the last worlds in 2014, squandered a two-set lead 30-32, 15-25, 25-22, 25-15, 15-9 to the Dutch on Monday in Nagoya.
“Ultimately the result is very disappointing,” U.S. coach Karch Kiraly said, according to USA Volleyball. “They made some changes and we wasted chances in the third set. You have to be good at converting those chances against a team like the Netherlands.”
The U.S. came into the tournament as No. 2 in the world in the most recent rankings from August 2017, trailing only Rio Olympic champion China. It had also won the other global event of 2018, the first Nations League, in the spring and early summer.
At worlds, the Americans won their first seven matches before trouble in the second round last week. They lost back-to-back matches to China (a sweep) and Italy to limp into the third round, where they lost to China again and the Netherlands on back-to-back days.
The fifth- or sixth-place finish will be the U.S.’ lowest result at an Olympics, world champs or World Cup since 2006. It earned medals at each of the last three Olympics but has never taken Olympic gold.
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