Work continues for PHL women’s volleyball
THE PHILIPPINE national women’s volleyball team fell short in its quest to land a medal in the 28th Southeast Asian Games in Singapore, but for one team official, at this stage of the sport’s “rebirth” in interest in the country, the journey was more important than the destination.
Losing in straight sets to Vietnam, 25-16, 25-21 and 25-23, on Saturday on its final Pool B assignment, the Philippines wound up with a 1-2 record in its bracket, outside of the top two that was needed to advance to the medal rounds.
The “Filipinas,” as the women’s volleyball team is known, dropped their opening game against Indonesia last Wednesday but bounced back admirably the following day with a dominant win over Malaysia.
They needed to win over the Vietnamese to position themselves for a semifinal slot but it was not to be as the more seasoned Vietnam side showed better poise as a group in the end to keep the spirited Philippine challenge at bay en route to the win.
Vietnam finished the preliminary round on top of Pool B with a 3-0 record with Indonesia coming in at second with a 2-1 card.
Failing to advance to the next round, the Filipinas’ run was still a “good run,” according to Larong Volleyball sa Pilipinas, Inc. (LVPI) President Joey Romasanta.
“It was a good run and we are proud and thankful to the team,” Mr. Romasanta said in a text message from Singapore after the team’s loss to Vietnam.
“They have restarted Philippine volleyball in international competition and showed what potentially we can be,” he added.
The Philippines made its first appearance in volleyball in this year’s edition of the biennial re- gional Games after a 10-year absence and the women’s team only had two weeks to prepare.
Mr. Romasanta said work continues for the team seeing how the Singapore Games showed how we are behind our neighbors in the sport.
He, nonetheless, expressed hope that with the full cooperation of every stakeholder, Philippine volleyball will continue to develop and eventually catch up.
“A lot of work ahead but with Filipino talent and passion for volleyball we will catch up with the other Asian countries fast,” the official, who is also the first vice-president of the Philippine Olympic Committee, said.
Meanwhile, much like how she has taken local volleyball by storm, flag- bearer and key cog Alyssa Valdez made waves in the Singapore Games with her scoring prowess.
The Ateneo star finished with 39 points (36 attacks, a block and two serves) in three games in the preliminaries to end up second in total points behind only Indonesian Aprilia Manganang who had 63 points.
Also finishing in the top 10 for the Philippine team was National University’s Alyja Santiago who had 22 while veteran Rachel Anne Daquis had 19 points and good for the 16th spot.