ALAS Pilipinas Women find themselves in a potential three-way logjam for the two semifinals tickets in Pool B of the 2025 AVC Women’s Volleyball Nations Cup.
Kazakhstan, the Philippines’ last pool play opponent on June 12 (11 a.m. Manila time), currently leads the group with a perfect 4-0 win-loss record.
READ: Alas sweeps New Zealand to keep Nations Cup semis hopes alive
Alas and its tormentor Iran share second place on 3-1 cards, but the latter is set to take on a winless Mongolia side to close out pool play.
The nationals have the slight edge over the Iranian team by virtue of their superior match points (10 to 7) and a higher set ratio (2.75 to 1.25).
For the Philippines to advance, there are two possible paths to keep the country’s back-to-back podium bid alive.
SCENARIO 1: Win and go in for PHI
On paper, it’s as simple as a win for Alas Pilipinas over Kazakhstan to secure an outright semifinals berth.
But against the team that eliminated Alas in last year’s Challenge Cup semifinals, taking the Kazakhs down is easier said than done.
Not to mention, Kazakh league champions Zhetysu VC disposed of PVL powerhouses Creamline and PLDT back in the 2025 AVC Women’s Volleyball Champions League in April.
But a possibly decisive roster development for the Kazakhs on the penultimate day of pool play might’ve just given Alas the opening it needs to pull off a herculean upset.
Kazakh ace winger Sana Anarkulova went down in the fourth set of its penultimate pool play win over Iran after tweaking her ankle from a block attempt.
Anarkulova is the team’s leading scorer with 47 points and seventh overall in the entire competition thus far.
Whether Alas can capitalize or not lies on their hands alone.
SCENARIO 2: MGL win over IRI sends PHI to semifinals, even if it loses to KAZ
All hope is not lost for the Philippines if it does end up losing to a powerhouse Kazakh side on Thursday.
However, it will take quite a miracle at this rate to pull it off.
Mongolia, one of two winless teams in Pool B along with Indonesia, must take down Iran regardless of how many sets it will take to hand Alas a semis spot.
In such a scenario, the Philippines and Iran will share identical 3-2 records.
But any permutation of match results will still end up with the Philippines projected to get the better of Iran in the first tiebreaking metric — match points — as shown elow.
If KAZ def. PHI (3/4 sets); MGL def. IRI (3/4 sets)
- KAZ: 5-0 (15 pts)
- PHI: 3-2 (10 pts)
- IRI: 3-2 (7 pts)
If KAZ def. PHI (3/4 sets); MGL def. IRI (5 sets)
- KAZ: 5-0 (15 pts)
- PHI: 3-2 (10 pts)
- IRI: 3-2 (8 pts)
If KAZ def. PHI (5 sets); MGL def. IRI (3/4 sets)
- KAZ: 5-0 (14 pts)
- PHI: 3-2 (11 pts)
- IRI: 3-2 (7 pts)
If KAZ def. PHI (5 sets); MGL def. IRI (5 sets)
- KAZ: 5-0 (14 pts)
- PHI: 3-2 (11 pts)
- IRI: 3-2 (8 pts)
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