South Korea lost to Japan in the women's volleyball bronze medal match Saturday at the London Olympics.

At Earls Court, Japan beat South Korea in straight sets, 25-22, 26-24, 25-21. South Korea came up short of winning its first volleyball medal, male or female, since the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

Saori Sakoda led Japan with 23 points. Kim Yeon-koung of South Korea, who entered this game as the tournament's leading scorer with 185 points, put up 22 points.

South Korea had to play catch-up from the start. Japan charged out to a 6-1 lead in the opening set, and started the second set with an 8-1 advantage. South Korea eventually dug out of holes each time before ultimately conceding both sets.

 

South Korea held its ground better in the third set. The seesaw battle took the teams to a 15-15 deadlock, before Japan pulled ahead to 19-16, thanks to unforced South Korean errors and a serve fault.

South Korea knotted the score again at 19-19 thanks to Kim Yeon-koung's spikes. But Sakoda and Risa Shinnabe combined to give Japan a 23-20 lead, and sealed the victory on South Korea's blocking fault.

In the first two sets, South Korea had no answer for the high-leaping Sakoda, who repeatedly sent hard spikes through outstretched arms of opponent blockers. Saori Kimura, who entered Saturday as the top Japanese scorer, joined the fray in the third set and finished the game with 11 points.

South Korea struggled with receptions in the early going and never found rhythm defensively. South Korean head coach Kim Hyung-sil said reception mistakes proved costly for his side.

"We were off our game on the receiving end, and I think it affected the players mentally as well," Kim said. "But I don't want to make excuse. Our players did the best they could do."

South Korea was grouped with the world's two top-ranked teams, the U.S. and Brazil, in the preliminary round, and Kim Yeon-koung said it was "almost a miracle" that South Korea came this far in the tournament.

"I felt this was a match we could have won, but nothing went our way on defense," she said. "But I think we showed a lot of promise for the future. Even though the Olympics didn't end the way we wanted, we're leaving London with more confidence." (Yonhap News)