Alas Pilipinas bundled out New Zealand, 25-17, 25-21, 25-18, on Wednesday to atone for a loss to Iran and stay in the race for the semifinals of the AVC Women’s Volleyball Nations Cup in Hanoi.
Alas team captain Jia de Guzman said the Filipinas were hardly discouraged after the loss to Iran, which saw the young team come apart after taking a 2 sets to 1 lead, and trained their energy on the things they can improve on.
“After our loss to Iran [Monday], we weren’t sad,” said the veteran setter. “We knew what we needed to improve and we get to know how to improve on our weaknesses.”
The one-day break gave Alas 24 hours to regroup and retool, which was exactly hat it did.
“It showed in this match [New Zealand] that we remain motivated and inspired, we were all excited to play,” de Guzman said. “We’re here to fight for a spot in the semifinals and the scores showed our optimism.”
Vanie Gandler and Eya Laure led the national team with 12 points apiece, while Alyssa Solomon, who missed the Iran match with a minor ankle injury, added 11 points as the Philippines improved to a 3-1 win-loss in Pool B.
For head coach Jorge Edson Souza de Brito, the team’s mindset is “to win, win and win, and play good.”
“We never came here to only play,” he said. “We’re going to learn, but what’s best about this game is we can learn winning.”
A major hump, however, lies ahead on Thursday (11 a.m. Manila time) as Alas goes up against undefeated tournament favorite Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan beat Indonesia, 25-17, 25-12, 26-24, for its fourth straight win to lead Pool B. Iran shares second and third places with the Philippines at 3-1 while Indonesia and Mongolia are out of the running on 0-3 cards.
In Pool A, host Vietnam leads with a 2-0 record, followed by Chinese Taipei (2-1), Australia (1-1), Hong Kong (1-2), and India (0-2).
The top two teams from each group will advance to the semifinals.
