LINCOLN, Neb. — Perhaps losing a set might have been a positive for the world No. 1 U.S. women’s volleyball team.

The Americans had to regroup to put away Puerto Rico.

Karsta Lowe and Tori Dixon provided a powerful attack in the crucial third set, Foluke Akinradewo and Kelsey Robinson set the tone with strong blocking up front, and the U.S. team moved one step closer to securing an Olympic bid with a 25-14, 24-26, 25-12, 25-14 win over the scrappy Puerto Ricans on Friday night.

“What we’ve learned from the past two matches we’ve played is that no one’s going to hand it to us,” Akinradewo said. “We learned that patience is definitely the key.”

Akinradewo keyed the attack in the fourth set along with Nicole Fawcett as the Americans clinched at least a second-place finish, which would keep them in the race to Rio.

They will look to win this qualifying event and earn the NORCECA automatic bid for the Rio de Janeiro Games in the final match of their round-robin schedule Saturday night against seventh-ranked Dominican Republic, which rallied from one set down to beat No. 16 Canada in the first match Friday, 25-27, 25-16, 26-24, 25-20, for its second victory in Nebraska.

With a cast of big hitters on coach Karch Kiraly’s 14-player roster, it just took getting a few of them going down the stretch.