Alas Pilipinas Girls’ once-promising campaign continued to spiral downward after falling to Japan and Venezuela, respectively, to drop to the 15th-place classification match in the FIVB Volleyball Girls’ U17 World Championship on Sunday morning (Philippine time).
The Philippines absorbed a 22-25, 15-25, 25-20, 22-25 loss to Venezuela, a day after suffering a 23-25, 19-25, 16-25 defeat to Japan in the 9th-16th quarterfinals.
Xyz Rayco paced the Philippines with 15 points against the Venezuelans, while Caera Celis added 14 markers.
The result set up a battle against world No. 22 Czechia for 15th place at Parque Estadio Nacional on Monday.
Coach Edwin Leyva and the rest of the coaching staff reminded the squad that they had accomplished what nobody expected by reaching the Round of 16, highlighted by victories over No. 8 Mexico and No. 20 Tunisia. They also stressed that the subsequent losses to higher-ranked opponents did not diminish what the team had achieved.
“What matters is that we learn from every game and use those lessons to get better,” team manager Karl Chan said.
“Alas Pilipinas has played well despite having so little time to build chemistry. This team had been together for only about a week before we left for Chile, while you can see that the other teams have had much more time to play and develop together,” he continued.
Entering the tournament ranked No. 25 in the world, the Philippines was the second-lowest-ranked team in the 24-team field, ahead of only No. 27 Spain. Still, the squad punched well above its weight throughout the competition.
With one final match against Czechia standing between them and a 15th-place finish, the Philippines will look to close its historic campaign on a high note.
