'Redeem Team' caps Games for United States

“I’m sure he was overwhelmed by everything, not only what happened on the volleyball court,” U.S. player Richard Lambourne said. “It’s just something he poured his heart and soul into for the last four years.”

“But certainly with the tragedy that befell his family at the beginning of these games, I’m so happy he was able to be here and experience this with us,” he added. “Because he’s a huge, if not the biggest, part of our team.”

The Americans won gold in 1984 and 1988 before taking the bronze in Barcelona. They finished fourth in Athens in 2004.

Russia won bronze for the second straight Olympics, beating Italy in straight sets.

Men’s water polo

In their last chance for a gold medal, the U.S. came up just short, losing 14-10 to a Hungarian team that became the first country to win three straight gold medals in the sport since Britain in 1920.

An American team that came in ranked ninth in the world that surprised just about everyone by getting to the final kept it close early and had it tied at 9 in the third quarter. But the Hungarians pulled away down the stretch, scoring five unanswered goals and turning a close match into a blowout.

Nonetheless, the Americans (5-2) were content with returning to the medal stand for the first time since 1988. Not bad for a program that gets little national attention because the sport is so geographically confined to California and really was trying to regroup after going through four coaches in the last four years.

“We’ve come a long way,” coach Terry Schroeder said.

The below-the-surface brawling that makes this sport exciting apparently spilled onto dry land for the Serbians, with their leading scorer and starting goaltender missing the bronze-medal match because of injuries reportedly sustained in a fight following a semifinal loss to the Americans.

Aleksandar Sapic, a four-time Olympian considered the best player in the world, was home in Belgrade undergoing surgery for a knee injury, and goalkeeper Denis Sefik was at the athletes’ village with a broken hand.

It didn’t matter. Serbia won the bronze anyway, beating Montenegro in a battle between countries that used to be one. Serbia and Montenegro won silver at the 2004 Athens games, two years before they split.

Boxing

Zou Shiming won China’s first gold medal in boxing. Then, Zhang Xiaoping made it two.

Zou, a two-time world champion whose bronze medal in Athens was China’s first in a sport long banned by Mao Zedong, won the light flyweight title when Mongolia’s Serdamba Purevdorj retired early in the second round with an apparent shoulder injury.

Zhang, a light heavyweight, upset two medal favorites on his way to the title bout, then beat Kenny Egan of Ireland 11-7.

In other bouts:

—Italy’s Roberto Cammarelle kept China from winning three golds, stopping Zhang Zhilei in the final round of the super heavyweight division.

—Bantamweight Badar-Uugan Enkhbat won Mongolia’s first gold medal in boxing, beating Cuba’s Yankiel Leon 16-5. It was only Mongolia’s second gold in any sport, with the first coming last week in judo.

—Russia’s Alexey Tishchenko won his second Olympic gold, outlasting France’s Daouda Sow of France 11-9 victory in the lightweight competition.

—Bakhyt Sarsekbayev of Kazakhstan won the welterweight gold, upsetting Cuban favorite Carlos Banteaux 18-9.

China and Russia paced the overall Beijing tournament with two gold medals apiece, while Cuba led with eight total medals — but no golds.

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