Alas volley squads continue history-making ways

The Alas Women celebrate. —SAVA PHOTO

Alas Pilipinas coach Taka Minowa steered the women’s national volleyball team to a historic silver medal finish in the SEA V Cup Leg 2 on the same Sunday that the gallant and young U17 squad pulled off another historic feat in Chile.

Powered by the trio of Alyssa Solomon, Bella Belen and Eya Laure, the Filipino women exacted sweet revenge on Indonesia, 25-13, 23-25, 25-19, 33-31, in Chiang Mai, Thailand as the country posted its best finish in the prestigious event.

But the Japanese coach still sees a lot of room to improve on for the team he just inherited ahead of the Asian Games starting next month.

“We (have) just (been) training for 15 days and came to Vietnam and Thailand,” Minowa said. “For sure, we’re just starting the program, and we have a lot of opportunities, a lot of space to improve [after] this game.”

While the women were carving out the win, Xyz Rayco and Resty Olaguir sparked a 27-25, 25-19, 25-16 victory by the girls’ team over Tunisia as the squad inched closer to a round-of-16 slot in the World U17 Championship in Chile.

Caera Celis sustained her fine form with 15 points, as Rayco and Olaguir flaunted their strong chemistry in the sweep of the Tunisians for the second straight win for the Filipinos, who are in the world primarily to show that they belong on the same stage.

They have more or less achieved that.

Rayco played her best game of the World Championship yet with 13 points, with Olaguir running the plays to improve to a 2-1 record behind Pool B leader and defending champion China. The top four of every pool will advance to the round of 16.

In Minowa’s first tournament as coach, Alas saw its four-straight bronze medal run ended by Indonesia last week, ending up 0-3 in Leg 1 in Hanoi, Vietnam.

But the Alas Women found their groove with Laure, Belen and Solomon leading the way to get big wins over Vietnam and Indonesia, earning a runner-up finish in Leg 2—their best campaign in the tournament since its inauguration in 2019.

Solomon, the Best Opposite Spiker in Leg 1, led Alas with 19 points, as Belen and Laure had 17 points apiece to fend off the Indonesians.

“We like saying to expect (nothing) because this is the first time that we’re going to [play matches together],” Minowa said. “So I told everybody to focus on ourselves, not to focus on our opponents, because what we can control is only on our side. They did it.” INQ