Jayrack De La Noche and Alexander Iraya closed out their debut in the 2021 FIVB Beach Volleyball Under-21 World Championships in Round of 24 on Friday in Phuket, Thailand.
The Filipino upstarts barged into the round of the competition after finishing the pool stages with a 1-2 win-loss record.
However, t hey could not get past the more experienced Polish pair of Mateusz Florczyk and Filip Lejawa, bowing 21-11, 21-12.
Florczyk and Lejawa dominated De La Noche and Iraya in their encounter, taking it in two sets to move into the Round of 16 instead of the Filipinos.
The battle was tight at the beginning of each frame, but the Europeans broke away with 12-6 leads halfway into the two sets.
From there, Florczyck and Lejawa stamped their dominance to end both sets in their favor.
Earlier in the day, the Philippines absorbed a loss in a tightly contested battle for the second spot in Pool G against Hungary’s Csanad Petik and Domonkos Doczi, 21-23, 19-21.
Other nations who fell in the 17th-24th spots Portugal, Hungary, Australia, and Brazil. Two more matches were ongoing as of publishing.
