ALAS Pilipinas salvaged a historic bronze medal at the expense of Australia, 25-23, 25-15, 25-7, in the 2024 Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Challenge Cup for Women on Wednesday at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.
Alas’ star trio of Angel Canino, Eya Laure and Sisi Rondina led the nation’s historic run to a maiden podium finish by rediscovering their form a day after being held to rare single-digit outputs in Tuesday night’s semifinals loss to Kazakhstan.
READ: Alas players, staff rewarded with P200,000 each for podium finish
Canino led four Alas aces in double figures with 14 points built on 13 attacks and one ace, on top of Rondina's (13 points) strong show on offense and back-to-back 10-point outings from Laure and Thea Gagate.
By repeating over the Aussies, the nationals secured their 16th international podium finish and first since the 2019 Asean Grand Prix in which the Philippines won back-to-back bronze medals in both legs of the tournament.
It is also the country’s first medal in an AVC-sanctioned tournament since the national volleyball federation’s inception 63 years ago.
"It feels surreal. Kasi actually, I think it’s going to take a while for it to sink in kasi we went in this game not expecting anything. We went and we’re not expecting anything and now we’re going home with a medal. It’s been years, decades since the last medal so sobrang thankful lang talaga kami," an emotional team captain Jia de Guzman said.
"We’re really hopeful, we’re looking forward to more preparations for the upcoming tournaments that we will play in kasi kung ganito yung napakita namin ngayon, we just hope na now we just keep improving and move up."
In summary, Alas’ first continental competition was highlighted by a four-game sweep of pool play. It suffered a straight-sets loss to the Kazakhs in its first AVC semis match on the way to the breakthrough bronze at the expense of the Aussies.
"I have no words to express how happy I am and also, not for myself only, I told these guys in the beginning, they deserve a lot. They really deserve it. They fight every single day.
"They might be really young to make history here, but now history has been made because of them, because they trusted themselves. Today, they came. I’m happy because of that," Alas head coach Jorge Souza de Brito said amid an uncertain coaching future.
"I’m happy because it was here that we got a medal, here, inside our place, our home, our venue, in front of everyone. So I’m really happy that we get to celebrate with everyone."
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