Kazakhs turn back Tornadoes in pool play

Altay VC of Kazakhstan bucked the surprise appearances of import Lindsay Stalzer and Jaja Santiago as it swept Foton Pilipinas, 25-27, 18-25, 21-25, yesterday at the close of pool play in the AVC Asian Women’s Club Championship at the Alonte Sports Arena in Biñan, Laguna.

The Kazakhs used their height and heft advantage to the hilt to dominate the hosts in the last two sets after a struggle in the extended opening frame.

The loss dropped Foton Pilipinas Tornadoes to fourth spot in Group E and will take on the winner between Bangkok Glass of Thailand and Ba’yi Shenzheng of China in the quarterfinals firing off tomorrow.

Earlier, the NEC Red Rockets of Japan whipped Thongtin Lienviet post Bank of Vietnam, 25-15, 25-19, 25-13, to finish second in Group E for a quarters duel with the loser between T. Grand of Chinese Taipei and Sarmayeh Bank of Iran being played at presstime. The event takes a break today. Foton head coach Fabio Menta said he is more comfortable playing against the Thais after facing them in the 2016 Sealect Tuna Thailand Volleyball League recently.

“We played with the Thailand national team and Bangkok Glass in Sisaket three weeks ago and we did pretty well. It was such a tight ballgame,” said Menta.

The event is organized by the Philippine Superliga, Larong Volleyball sa Pilipinas, Inc. and the city government of Biñan headed by Rep. Len Alonte and backed by SMM Sport, Nike, Senoh, Asics, Mikasa, Foton, BMW, Rexona, PLDT and Price Waterhouse Cooper with Crimson Hotel as official residence, and TV5 and SMMTV of Thailand as official broadcast partners.