WHEN tasked to face a team the Philippines hasn’t beaten in 32 long years, Alas Pilipinas head coach Jorge Souza de Brito knows exactly what they will have to lean on more than anything else: heart.
The Filipinos open their 33rd Southeast Asian (SEA) Games women’s volleyball campaign against host nation and 14-time reigning champion Thailand on Thursday, 6:30 p.m. (Manila time), in a matchup that places the Nationals at a disadvantage on paper.
De Brito didn’t shy away from that reality.
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“Thailand is always good, it's always strong. They play at home and also I think it's always a pleasure to play against them and measure how we are, at what stage we are as a team,” he said before raising the curtains on their SEA Games campaign in Bangkok.
“We may have little time for preparation, but the heart is here. That's all we need now, and that's all we have.”
For a program determined to end a two-decade medal drought, this campaign will demand not only passion, but pride - the kind that can anchor belief against the region’s best.
“We're going to fight with pride,” the 59-year-old Brazilian mentor added.
“If you're going to simplify, of course, you're going to be on the stage to get a medal. But we're not pressured by that. The medal can and has to be the consequence, instead of being the target. The target is to do our best, and then make this more than enough to get to the final.”
Alas enters the SEA Games off a productive international run this year, collecting a silver and two bronze medals across the 2025 AVC Nations Cup and the 5th SEA V.League.
But they have had little time to reset for the biennial meet, with most players tied up by a PVL Reinforced Conference that stretched until November 30, barely two weeks before the SEA Games officially opened.
Continuity is Alas' ace, finally
Still, what they lack in preparation time, they hope to compensate for with continuity.
The group has been competing under the Alas program for roughly two years now, building cohesion that captain Jia de Guzman believes could finally get them over the hump and recreate the magic of Bacolod 2005, the last time the Philippines made the SEA Games women’s volleyball podium.
“Well, we've gone up against some of the teams that we're going to play against this SEA Games. So we have confidence in that,” said de Guzman, set for her fourth appearance in the regional meet.
“We also have familiarity with each other since we’ve been playing as a team since last year, so the system is there. This time around, we've had two seasons of being Alas Pilipinas. But yes, we do wish that we had more time to prepare for this. Nevertheless, the communication, the familiarity, we have that.”
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