JAKARTA – Still shocked but now awed.
Armed with its short but all-out training in Japan, the Philippine volley belles still found rival Thailand far superior in regional showdown, taking a 22-25, 12-25, 15-25 defeat in the opening game of the 18th Asian Games women’s volleyball event at the GBK Sports Center here yesterday.
However, the Filipinas showed a highly competitive form at the start but dropped a tight first-set battle and failed to recover from there.
They take a rest today before playing Japan at 4:30 p.m. (5:30 p.m. in Manila) tomorrow over at the Bulungan Sport Hall.
The Phl belles have three more games left in pool play, needing just to place in the top four among five teams to advance to the knockout stage.
“This is a good outing for us because we experienced how it felt playing against an elite team like Thailand. We realized that we can win over them, but we’re still in the process of rebuilding and hopefully our performance improves as we go along,” said coach Shaq delos Santos.
Thailand, the reigning SEAG champ and bronze medalist in the last Asiad in Incheon, South Korea in 2014, proved unstoppable as it got into the groove after salvaging the opening set at 25-22.
Chatchu On Moksri, Pimpichaya Kokram and Pleumjit Thinkaow punished the Phl side with their ferocious attacks, combining for 38 points. Alyssa Valdez top scored for the Filipinas with seven points while Jaja Santiago and Kim Kianna Dy added six apiece.
Valdez, Santiago, Dy, Mika Reyes, Aby Marano and Denden Lazaro formed the starting unit that got Team Phl to a jackrabbit 9-2 start.
But then old Phl nemeses Thinkaow, Chatchu and Pimpichaya came through with clutch points on perfect setups by Nootsara Tomkom as the Thais caught up at 15-all then surged ahead to stay at 22-21.
The Thais were simply dominant with their quick lethal offensives and tough floor and net defense as they breezed through in the next two sets.
Overall, the Phl landed 29 spikes and five service aces while getting three markers from their net defense. The Thais had better stats in all aspects with their 50-hit, seven-block, seven-ace effort in the match that lasted one hour and 17 minutes.
With Santiago making a killing on the service line, the Filipinas stormed to a 9-2 lead and forced Thailand to sue for time. Pleumjit sparked Thailand’s rally to wrest the lead, 16-15, before Valdez led a 4-0 counter-attack to get Phl back on top, 19-6.
However, the Thais wrested control back, pouncing on Phl’s poor reception to score four aces in a closing 9-3 exchange, and never looked back.
With Filipinas struggling with their receive, the Thais zoomed to a 23-11 cushion in the second and 19-7 headstart in the third en route to the straight set verdict.
“We need a lot of experience in this kind of high level tournament,” said Delos Santos. “We had a good first set, but we struggled with errors, especially in our services and receptions, in the second and third sets that led to our collapse.”
Against powerhouse Japan, Delos Santos stressed the need for his wards to train hard, saying Japan is a super power in volleyball. – With report from Olmin Leyba