Men’s beach volley takes semis spot

The men’s beach volleyball team sustained its fiery form after scoring a sweep against Cambodia yesterday in the 31st Southeast Asian Games at the Tuan Chau Beach, Quang Ninh in Vietnam.

The pair of Jude Garcia and Krung Arbasto defeated Chuk Sophea and Thy Menghuong, 21-15, 21-16 while Ranran Abdilla and Jaron Requinton beat Oem Narit and Som Samith, 2114, 21-14 to assure themselves a spot in the semifinals.

The PH bets will next face host Vietnam in the 3 p.m. showdown today which will determine the top seed in their pool.

At the Quang Ninh Gymnasium, the medal hopes for the Philippine women’s volleyball team took a huge hit after suffering a 25-23, 21-25, 25-15, 25-20 defeat at the hands of Indonesia.

Alyssa Valdez and Jaja Santiago carried the fight for the Filipinas but were not enough to topple last edition’s bronze medalists as Indonesia put the national team on brink of missing the podium finish.

The Filipina spikers have now absorbed two-straight losses after opening its campaign with a rousing sweep of Malaysia. Since then they suffered a thorough 25-15, 25-13, 25-14 beatdown from defending champions Thailand in their second game last Saturday before taking the heartbreaking loss to Indonesia which put them on a 1-2 record in the single round-robin format tournament.

The Filipinas actually had the chance to take the opening set after taking a comfortable 22-19 lead but a pair of defensive lapses allowed the Indonesians to generate momentum and unleash a 6-1 run to secure the first set.