PH VOLLEYBELLES SHOOT FOR SILVER MEDAL

Team Philippines wilted am id t he crushi ngf orce of Thailan d,2 5-12, 25-16, 25-10, on Saturd ay n ight, bu td espite t hel oss ,t he Nationals ar ec onfiden to fna iling t hes ilver medal in the second leg of the Asean Volleyball Grand Prix.

National coach Shaq delos Santo ssa idt he “mos ti mportant game for us here is agains ti ndonesia on Sunday .B ecause we played ag ood game against them in Thailand.”

He was referring tot hef irst leg when Indonesi asc raped byw it ha five-set win ove rt he Philippines, 25-21, 26-28 ,12 -25 ,2 5-18 ,1 5-9.

Wit ha 1- 1r ecord, av ictory ove ri ndonesi aa t 5p .m. would mean a second place finish in the four-nation tournamen tt hat serves as test f ort he Southeast Asian Games competitions.

Earlie r,i ndonesia outplayed Vietnam ,29 -27 ,2 5-20, 23-25 ,2 517 to tie the Philippines wit ha 11 card.

“W ew ill just keep pushing and playing ver y ha rd,” Delos Santo sa dded.

They indee d did t heir best given that four key players ,A lyssa Valdez, Ji am orado, Jovelyn Gonzaga and Maddi ema dayag, were ou ti n Iloilo playi ngf ort heir club teams right abou tt he same time in t he P remier Volleyball League.

They are all expecte d to plane in jus ti n ti me f or t he match agains tt he Indonesians.

Bu tt heir absence on Saturday lef tt he Philippines wit ha 10-man rotation agains tt he SEA Games powerhouse, which rightfully chose to trea tt he Nationals as equals and went full throttle till the end.

Pleumj it T hinkao w and Pimpichaya Kokram tormented the Philippines no end en route tot he rout f ort he Thais’ second straight victory.

They play winless Vietnam in t hef irst game on Sunday i na formalit yf or wrapping up the gold medal.

Unlike in t hef irst leg meeting where t hec ountry managed to steal a se t, t he Philippines ran ou to f ammunition agains tt he Thai juggernaut.

Grethcel Soltones, Jasmine Nabor an dro selyn Dori ama de t he m os to f t he m inutes they wer eg iven and lent help to Mylene Paa t, A by Marañ o, C es Molina and Majoy Baron.

Thailand also swep tt he competition to claim t he f irst leg two weeks ag oi n Nakhon Ratchasima.

Meanwhile, after losing their opening match i ns traight sets to first leg champion Thailan d,t he Indonesians pulle dt his one out through the efforts of to psp iker Arsela Nuari Purnama.