Alas Pilipinas’ Sofiah Pagara and Khy Progella steamrolled Mongolia to punch their ticket to the Round of 16 in the women’s beach volleyball event of the 20th Asian Games on Wednesday at Hekinan Ryokuchi Beach Court in Japan.
Pagara and Progella barely allowed Khandsuren Gantogtokh and Tsolmon Batjargal to breathe, cruising to a 21-3, 21-3 victory in a thoroughly one-sided affair to improve to 2-0 in Pool G.
The Philippine pair are now tied with Hong Kong at the top of the pool with identical records. They will face Hong Kong on Saturday, with the winner claiming the top spot in Pool G.
Meanwhile, James Buytrago and Ronniel Rosales absorbed their first loss after a closely fought encounter against Vietnam’s Nguyen Lam Toi and Tran Van Viet, 22-24, 15-21, in the men’s division.
Buytrago and Rosales, who opened their campaign with a victory over Mongolia’s Amar Batmunkh and Shijir-erdene Bat-enkh, dropped to 1-1 in Pool C.
The pair will close out the group stage against Indonesia’s Sofyan Rachman Efendi and Bitnang Akbar on Sunday.
