FLORENCE, Italy, June 25. DESPITE a late fourth quarter rally that saw them draw to within two the USA Men's National Team was unable to come all the way back and lost 8-5 to Serbia in the semi-finals of the FINA World League Super Final. They will play the loser of the Italy-Croatia match for the Bronze Medal on Sunday. Ryan Bailey (Long Beach, CA/UC-Irvine/Newport WPF) tallied two goals to lead the USA offense.
The match against Serbia started out identical to yesterday's victory over Montenegro with the United States falling down 3-0 in the first period. Brian Alexander (Santa Ana, CA/UCSB/Olympic Club) got the United States on the board with a score late in the quarter and they trailed 3-1 going to the second period. The second quarter was all Serbia as they added on two more scores to go up 5-1 at halftime.
In the third, Serbia continued to build their lead taking a 7-1 lead before Tony Azevedo (Long Beach, CA/Stanford/NYAC) would stop the run with a goal with just :15 left in the quarter. Trailing 7-2 to open the fourth quarter Team USA started to chip away when Bailey scored less than a minute into the quarter to get within 7-3. Some 90 seconds later Jesse Smith (Coronado, CA/Pepperdine/NYAC) found the cage to make it 7-4 Serbia. The United States got even closer when Bailey hit again at the 3:01 mark to come within two goals at 7-5. Serbia delivered a dagger with a goal thirty seconds later to go back up 8-5. They'd hold off the United States the rest of the way to come away victorious 8-5 to advance to the Gold Medal match.
Scoring – Scoresheet
USA 5 (1, 0, 1, 3) R. Bailey 2, T. Azevedo 1, J. Smith 1, B. Alexander 1
SRB 8 (3, 2, 2, 1)
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