Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) National Team Commission chairperson Tony Boy Liao shed light on why a women’s team was not sent to participate in the recently concluded 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
Speaking during the Premier Volleyball League Second All-Filipino Conference, Liao revealed that the collegiate core that competed in the 22nd Asian Women’s Volleyball Championship had a schedule conflict, which forced the federation to forgo fielding a team in the Asiad.
“Actually, we were supposed to participate in the Asian Games. As you know, our men’s team, the two beach volleyball teams, they participated. The problem was with the formation of the team, as you all know now, the team that’s playing for the national women’s team, the core is from NU,” shared the long-time volleyball official.
“They are students. So, if we were to take them to the Asian Games, it would create problems with their schooling, which is why we decided at PNVF not to send the women’s team,” he added.
The federation considered the idea of sending a PVL squad to the Asian Games, but due to time constraints, the PNVF eventually decided to cancel the women’s team’s participation.
“We couldn’t get a team represented by the PVL because their training couldn’t be organized again, as you know, in the past, they could only train with coach Jorge Souza de Brito for two to three weeks,” said Liao.
“So they wouldn’t be able to perform well in the Asian Games, especially since our opponents there are not just Southeast Asian teams. We would be playing against Asia’s best, including China, Japan, Korea, and Taipei. That’s why the decision was not to send the women’s team for now,” he continued.
The last time the women’s team competed in the continental showpiece was in 2018 when a team led by Alyssa Valdez and Jaja Santiago helped the team finish eighth out of 11 teams.
On the other hand, the men’s team recently made its return to the Asian Games after 49 years and ended up in 13th place out of 19 squads.
