THE Philippine national women’s volleyball team bowed to University of Tsukuba, 13-25, 21-25, 19-25, to settle for silver in the Philippine Super Liga Super Cup at The Arena in San Juan on Friday.
After a lopsided opening set, the Pinay spikers took an 8-3 lead in the second set and a slim 8-7 margin in the third, but each time fell apart as the Japanese school team relied on its impeccable floor defense to complete a sweep of the tournament.
Team captain Aby Maraño led the nationals with seven points while Eya Laure chipped in six markers in the loss that coach Shaq delos Santos said is a wake-up call less than a month before the Southeast Asian Games.
“Good thing na nadi-discover pa namin ‘yung mga pagkukulang namin,” he said.
University of Tsukuba had 88 digs compared to the 62 of the national team, and the guest team also had a far higher success rate on attacks (44-25).
Takahashi Marina finished with 13 points for University of Tsukuba.
“I’m happy to be in this very nice tournament, we are very happy,” said University of Tsukuba coach Nakanishi Yasumi. “[Philippine] volleyball is good offense but our team is specially lucky today.”
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