By Katie Thomas

c.2008 New York Times News Service

BEIJING — The United States men’s water polo team extended its unlikely string of victories Friday by defeating Serbia, 10-5, in the semifinals, sending the team to the gold medal match for the first time in 20 years.

“Never in any of our minds did we think it was going to end the way it did,” said the American captain Tony Azevedo, who led the way with three goals. “I mean, my smile still hasn’t left my face, I’ll tell you. I’m tingling all over.”

The United States was ranked ninth in the world before the Olympics, but reached the semi-finals after a series of upsets that included beating top-ranked Croatia on Sunday. The match Friday was no exception. The Americans lost to Serbia by double digits in February and by 4-2 in the preliminary rounds last week.

Friday’s game started out close, with each team trading goals. The first quarter ended with the score tied, 3-3. The United States took the lead in the second quarter with a goal by Ryan Bailey and never lost it. Bailey and Azevedo each scored power-play goals in the third quarter to open the lead to 7-4. By the fourth quarter, the score was 7-5 but the American goalkeeper Merrill Moses made a series of saves. Serbia never scored again.

“In the fourth quarter, I was challenging them,” Moses said. “I really didn’t want them to score. You get hot sometimes and you get cold. I got extremely hot.”

The American victory came after days of speculation that Serbia had thrown a match against Italy in order to put itself in a better position in the medal round. By losing to Italy, Serbia faced Spain and then the United States. Both were considered easier teams to beat than Montenegro, which Serbia would have played had it defeated Italy.

“If they did that, it didn’t work out,” Peter Varellas of the United States said.

The Americans will now face Hungary, the gold medal winners in Sydney in 2000 and Athens in 2004, in the finals Sunday. Despite Hungary’s status as the favorite, U.S. coach Terry Schroeder cautioned against underestimating his players.

“The team’s been on an amazing run,” said Schroeder, who was a member of the men’s water polo team in the 1988 Seoul Olympics when it won the silver medal. “They’re going to be very difficult to beat. But it’s one game and for that one day, we may be better than them.”