PARIS — Poland will play for a gold medal in men’s volleyball, rallying from a 2-1 deficit to beat the United States in the deciding fifth set Wednesday.

Poland came back from 20-18 in the third and needed two set points to force it to a deciding fifth. Led by outside hitter Wilfredo León, a Cuban native, in the attack, Poland took an early lead in the fifth and left the Americans trying to play catch-up the rest of the way.

A service ace by Max Holt pulled the Americans within 11-10. León’s spike out of bounds made it 14-13 before his successful point moments later sent the team onto the floor in celebration.

León amassed a match-high 26 points to lead the 25-23, 25-27, 14-25, 25-23, 15-13 victory.

“Tough one to take,” said four-time U.S. Olympian Matt Anderson. “They served well, they hit the ball high and hard. In the sets two, three and the beginning of the fourth we were bringing balls down and we got good touches when they were a little bit easier balls. We just didn’t necessarily take care of that late in the fourth.”

The Americans, who haven’t been to the Olympic final since winning it all at the 2008 Beijing Games, will play for bronze aghainst Italy. Poland will take on France for the title Saturday.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: A’ja Wilson scored 20 points and Jackie Young added 15 to help the U.S. beat Nigeria 88-74 in the quarterfinals, extending its record Olympic winning streak to 59.

Breanna Stewart also had 13 for the Americans, who haven’t lost since the 1992 Barcelona Games and are two victories from an unprecedented eighth consecutive gold medal. They will face a familiar foe in Australia in the semifinals Friday.

Australia routed Serbia, 85-67. The other medal-round game will feature France playing Belgium.

The loss ended a run by Nigeria, which became the first African country to qualify for the quarterfinals.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL: Miles Partain and Andy Benesh could not stop the slide, and the United States is leaving without a medal in the sport.

Their 21-14, 21-16 defeat to Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan of Qatar made it the first American medal shutout since the sport joined the Summer Games in Atlanta in 1996. They carried American hopes with both the women’s teams and the other men’s team out of the tournament.

MEN’S WATER POLO: Adrian Weinberg made two blocks in a penalty shootout to help the United States beat Australia 11-10 in the quarterfinals.

Hannes Daube and Alex Bowen each scored twice in regulation as the U.S. reached the semifinals for the first time since 2008.

It was the third straight win for the U.S., which will play Serbia on Friday.Serbia is trying to become the third men’s team to win three consecutive gold medals. Croatia will face Hungary in the other semifinal.

WOMEN’S WRESTLING: Sarah Hildebrandt won the 50-kilogram category, defeating Yusneylis Guzman Lopez of Cuba 3-0 in the final to become the fourth U.S. woman to win gold.

MEN’S WEIGHTLIFTING: Li Fabin of China defended his Olympic title in the men’s 61-kilogram division, while Hampton Morris became the first American man to earn a weightlifting medal at the Games in four decades.

Morris got the bronze medal, failing on a world-record attempt in the clean and jerk but ending up at 303 pounds. The last U.S. men’s weightlifting medalists were Mario Martinez and Guy Carlton in the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

MEN’S BOXING: Middleweight Oleksandr Khyzhniak, who was one minute from winning an Olympic gold medal three years ago when he was rocked by one miraculous punch, beat Nurbek Oralbay of Kazakhstan 3:2 in a thrilling final.

The fighters unloaded on each other for three rounds, but Khyzhniak clinched the win by dominating a final three minutes filled with a jaw-dropping number of uppercuts, combinations and power punches.

• Boxer Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan has advanced to the gold-medal bout in the women’s featherweight division, winning her third consecutive bout while dealing with widespread scrutiny regarding misconceptions about her gender at the Paris Olympics.

One day after welterweight Imane Khelif of Algeria reached the women’s welterweight final with a third straight victory in Paris, Lin defeated Esra Yildiz Kahraman of Turkey 5:0 on Wednesday night for her third win.

Lin will fight for gold on Saturday, taking on Julia Szeremeta of Poland.

“I will use everything I’ve learned in my life to do my best in the next match,” Lin said through an interpreter.

Lin and Khelif both have won every round in all three of their Olympic bouts despite the massive distractions created by the fallout from the Olympic-banished International Boxing Association’s decision last year to disqualify both fighters from the world championships for allegedly failing an eligibility test.