In a five-set match played to alternate choruses of boos and cheers from the raucous Serbian fans in the stands, the United States men’s volleyball team earned a berth in the Olympic semifinals on Wednesday by beating Serbia, three sets to two.
The Americans came back from a two-sets-to-one deficit before winning their sixth straight match at the Beijing Games. The outside hitter Riley Salmon seemed to float over the net as he sent the winning return rocketing into Serbia’s side of the court. No opposing player could even get a pinkie on it.
The United States won, 20-25, 25-23, 21-25, 25-18, 15-12, moving the team another step closer to its first appearance in an Olympic final in 20 years. The Americans will play Russia in the semifinals Friday.
“I’d be lying if I said we weren’t anxious,” the outside hitter Reid Priddy said. “It’s almost like there’s more pressure in a game like this because if you lose, you go home. We want the gold. It’s definitely on everyone’s mind.”
With each point on Wednesday, the Americans became more animated, shouting after each small victory and high-fiving as if the gold medal were on the line. In a sense, it was.
The United States men’s team, ranked third in the world, came here hoping to win its first Olympic gold medal since 1988. The closest it has come since then was a bronze in 1992.
Just last month, the team won the World League, beating Serbia in the title game, so it had momentum and confidence going into this competition.
But the Games did not begin smoothly. The team was unexpectedly knocked off kilter when Coach Hugh McCutcheon’s in-laws were attacked at a popular tourist site here on Aug. 9.
After his father-in-law, Todd Bachman, was stabbed to death and his mother-in-law, Barbara Bachman, was seriously injured, McCutcheon missed the team’s first three games while he mourned with his family.
The condition of Barbara Bachman, who left Beijing last week after being stabbed multiple times, was upgraded to good from fair on Tuesday at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
Elisabeth Bachman, McCutcheon’s wife and a former Olympian, has posted updates about her mother on the family’s garden business Web site, bachmans.com.
She and her sisters, Sara and Susan, wrote that the doctors called their mother’s survival a miracle.
“Fortunately, she is in a condition where she is comfortable to hold conversations so we can cope and grieve together,” the Bachman sisters wrote.
Their statement also said that a memorial service for their father would not be arranged until their mother was strong enough to attend.
“Right now, I’m happy that we won,” said McCutcheon, who returned to the bench last Saturday, after his wife and his mother-in-law flew home. “When I’m at volleyball, I’m thinking about volleyball. I’m trying to compartmentalize all other parts of my life right now.”
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