US women lose in soccer, win in volleyball, basketball

The quest for gold medals is on track for the U.S. women’s basketball and volleyball teams after finishing at the top of their groups in pool play.

The U.S. women’s soccer team can’t say the same.

Jessie Fleming scored on a penalty kick in the 74th minute and Canada earned a 1-0 semifinal victory  over the United States in the Olympic women’s soccer competition on Monday. 

Canada goes on to face the winner of the late semifinal in Yokohama between Sweden and Australia. The gold medal match is set for Friday at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo. 

It is the second straight Olympics that the United States has been knocked out of contention for the gold medal match. 

The Americans were bounced from the 2016 Games by Sweden in the quarterfinals. The U.S. team goes on to play in the bronze medal match in Kashima on Thursday. 

Canada had not won against the United States since 2001. 

In basketball, A’ja Wilson scored 22 points and Breanna Stewart added 17 to help the U.S. beat France 93-82  in their final pool play match.

The win was the 52nd in a row for the U.S. going back to the bronze medal game of the 1992 Olympics. The U.S. went undefeated in group play and advanced to the quarterfinals. The Americans (3-0) haven’t lost a game in group play since women’s basketball was added to the Olympics in 1976.

“It wasn’t a must win, but we always want to win,” Stewart said. “To have that momentum going into the quarterfinals, this is where we start to peak.”

While the U.S. women’s basketball team has dominated at the Olympics, the women’s volleyball team is seeking its first gold medal ever.

The Americans are off to a good start after beating Italy in five sets  Monday to win their pool despite losing a second starter to a rolled ankle. Jordyn Poulter joined Jordan Thompson on the sidelines, but the U.S. still improved to 4-1.

“They really stayed together,” coach Karch Kiraly said. “I look back and our substitute box is getting very lonely back there. There’s only three or four players there. So it’s getting to be a bit of an adventure. But our team played with great heart and played together.”

Simone Biles is returning to competition  in Tokyo.

The 2016 Olympic champion will compete in the balance beam finals on Tuesday, a little over a week after stepping away from the meet to focus on her mental health.

The 24-year-old Biles won bronze on beam in Rio de Janeiro five years ago.

She removed herself from the team final on July 27 after a shaky performance on vault during the first rotation. She watched from the sidelines as her three American teammates completed the meet without her; the U.S. took silver behind the team known as the Russian Olympic Committee.

Biles later said she was dealing with issues surrounding air awareness, referred to as “the twisties” in her sport. Biles qualified for all five individual event finals but took herself out of four of them.

Elsewhere in gymnastics, American gymnast Jade Carey won the gold medal on floor exercise, Shin Jeahwan of South Korea won the men’s vault, and Liu Yang of China won the men’s still rings.

World champion Sifan Hassan made an incredible recovery  from a fall at the final bell to win her 1,500-meter heat.

Hassan picked herself up after getting in a tangle with Kenyan runner Edinah Jebitok at the start of the last lap. She sped around the outside of the pack on the back straight and ended up crossing the line first in 4 minutes, 5.17 seconds to qualify for the semifinals.

It kept alive the Dutch runner’s bid for a rare distance-running treble at the Tokyo Games.

Hassan has qualified to run in the 5,000-meter final later Monday at the Olympic Stadium, when the energy she expended on that last-lap scramble in the 1,500 heats might catch up with her.

Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico has won gold in the women’s 100-meter hurdles, powering ahead of American Keni Harrison.

That kept the United States out of the win column at the Olympic track meet for yet another session.

Camacho-Quinn finished in 12.37 seconds for a .15 second win over the world-record holder, Harrison. Jamaica’s Megan Tapper finished third. 

“This was what I wanted for this year. I wanted to be a gold medalist,” Camacho-Quinn said.

Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory that competes under its own flag at the Olympics, has one more track gold medal than the deepest team at the Games, as the meet approaches its halfway point.

Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece has edged Cuba’s Juan Miguel Echevarria for the men’s long jump gold medal with a winning jump on the last attempt.

April Ross and Alix Klineman have advanced to the quarterfinals  of the Olympic beach volleyball tournament.

The American “A-Team” beat Cuba 21-17, 21-15. The win came a day after two other U.S. teams were ousted in the first knockout round.

Next up for the Americans is one defending gold medalist Laura Ludwig of Germany and her partner Maggie Kozuch.

“We have a lot of respect for them and, obviously, Laura’s success,” said Klineman, who also played against Kozuch on the Italian indoor volleyball tour. “We know they’re going to come out motivated. As are we.”

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