THE Philippines suffered another disappointing meltdown, this time falling to Iran, 29-27, 16-25, 25-17, 12-25, 13-15, to blow its quarterfinals chances in Pool C of the 6th AVC Asian Cup on Monday in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand.
The women’s national volleyball team failed to close out a game for the second game in a row as they fell to the Iranians led by skipper Mahsa Kadkhoda and Maedeh Borhani, who had 30 and 18 points, respectively, and provided the big blows in their neck-and-neck fifth-set encounter.
Just like their heartbreaking 25-21, 25-21, 24-26, 16-25, 10-15 loss to Australia last Sunday, where they failed to close out and capitalize a two-set lead, the Filipinas squandered a 2-1 set lead and lost steam in the fourth set with Neda Chamlanian and the Iranians erupting with a 22-10 lead and never looking back to force a decider.
Borhani led Iran’s convincing start in the deciding set with a 9-6 lead but the Pinays put up a last hurrah as Cha Cruz-Behag’s hit and Alyssa Valdez’s back-to-back attacks tied it at 10-apiece.
Kadkhoda nailed two hits in a row to give Iran a 12-10 advantage but Mylene Paat and Valdez once again equalized the match to 12-all. Kadkhoda put the Iranians back on top, 13-12, only to commit a service error that tied the fifth set at 13-all before Borhani delivered the two winning kills to send her team to the quarterfinals and shatter Philippines’ hopes to go deeper in the tourney.
Valdez topscored for the Philippines with 24 points off 22 kills, a block and an ace. Paat chipped in 10 hits, while skipper Aby Maraño and Behag added eight and six markers, respectively.
The Philippines will be relegated to the classification round after two losses as it won’t have any chance to enter the quarterfinals with unbeaten Pool C leaders Iran and Australia, which took down Kazakhstan with a 21-25, 25-20, 25-23, 20-25, 15-12 win earlier , joining six other teams from Pools A and B in the next round.
The country also lost its qualification in next year’s AVC Asian Women’s Seniors Championship as it will be needed to earn that spot again in a new qualifying tournament, the Asia Challenge Cup, which opens either next year or in 2020.
The nationals will wrap up their group stage campaign against winless Kazakhstan, which also lost two five sets encounter to Iran last Sunday and earlier to Australia, at 5 p.m. (Philippine time), while quarters bound Iranians and Aussies clash fort the top spot in Pool C on the same day.
The Philippines had another roller coaster ride match against the gritty and stubborn Iran this time.
The Filipinas needed to negate two set-point advantages of the Iranians, which was twice erased by Valdez to tie the opening frame 25-apiece. Behag, fresh from a short breather from the bench, gave the country the set point, 26-25, with a kill off the block but Shekoufeh Safari blocked her next attempt to equalize the set anew. Safari, however, a crucial service committed a crucial service error before Aby Maraño nailed the set-clinching hit to draw the first blood.
Iran, however, bounced back stronger in the second set establishing a 16-9 start before it erected to a 22-12 spread capped by a back row kill and ace by Mahsa Saberi. Risa Sato, Valdez and Grethcel Soltones scored three of their four-point rally to cut it down to 23-16 only for Chamlanian to put Iran at set point before Valdez committed an attack error that gave the Iranians a nine-point second set win to equalize the match at one-set apiece.
Valdez and Paat carried the cudgels of the country for a hot 18-7 start in the third set only the for their team to flirt with disaster as they failed to convert attacks in the succeeding rallies allowing the Iranians to trim it to four-point deficit, 20-16, capped by Chamlanian’s attack and hit as well as Mona Deris Mahmoudi’s quick attack.
Paat and Maraño stopped the bleeding with back-to-back block kills for a 22-16 lead. Paat and Mona Ashofteh exchanged service errors before Valdez nailed the set-point-clinching hit, 24-14, followed by an attack error from Fatemeh Hassani Sadi that gave the Philippines a 2-1 set lead, which it failed to carry the momentum in the next two sets.
Iran had 35 errors in the game compared to the Philippines, which only had 19 miscues.
But the Iranians leaned on Kadkhoda nailing 19 kills, six service aces and five blocks for Iran, as well as Borhani, whose points production all came from her 18 spikes. Chamlanian and Saberi added 12 and 10, respectively.
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