Philippines falls to Olympic champions China

Facing the best team in the world, the Philippine Women’s National Volleyball Team succumbed to China and fell out of the Asian Games quarterfinals, 15-25, 9-25, 7-25, in Jakarata, Indonesia.

The Chinese needed only 59 minutes in notching the victory—the first set, where the Filipinas posed some semblance of resistance, lasted for 22 minutes and the next two sets were over in 19 and 18 minutes, respectively.

The Philippines played admirably in the first set in the face of the taller, more experienced Chinese. Jaja Santiago and Alyssa Valdez found ways around the thicket of Chinese arms at the net. However, behind the effort of 2016 Olympics MVP and Best Outside Spiker Zhu Ting, China pulled away late.

Zhu, played limited minutes, and had five kills and four digs.

Gong Xiangyu led the Chinese with 11 hits, four blocks, an ace and six digs while Liu Xiaotong had eight kills, one block, also an ace and three digs.

There was no silver lining for the Nationals after that. China strutted their world-class form in the second set and struck early in the third frame to cruise to the win. The Philippines scored mostly off China’s errors in the latter sets.

Santiago led the Philippine squad with 12 hits, three blocks, and ace and two digs.

The Nationals move on to the classification phase where they can vie for a place as high as fifth.