China volleyball wins gold, rewrites history

Jenny Lang Ping has her name in the volleyball history books.

Lang Ping was already the first woman to coach in a gold medal match but with China’s victory over Serbia in four sets Saturday (19-25, 25-17, 25-22, 25-23), she also became the first person to win gold as both a player and a coach.

The Chinese followed the same script in the gold medal match as they did throughout the whole tournament, coming together late and getting hot at the right time.

China entered the Rio Olympics as the No. 3 team in the world, but started out the Rio Olympics with a surprising loss to the Netherlands and finished just 2-3 in prelims.

But things started to click for the Chinese late, pulling off an epic comeback against host Brazil in the quarterfinals and then getting some revenge on the Netherlands in the semis.

Zhu Ting put China on her back once again, tallying 25 points in the gold medal match, going head-to-head with Serbia’s Tijana Boskovic (23 points). That brings Ting’s total to 86 points in the last three matches while Boskovic tallied 63 in that same span

This is the third gold medal for China women’s volleyball, also taking home the accolade in 2004 and 1984. The Chinese women have also taken home silver in 1996 and bronze in 2008 and 1988.

Serbia is taking home a medal for the first time ever.