The Philippine women's volleyball team kept its quarterfinal bid alive by earning a historic win over Hong Kong in the Asian Games Thursday in Jakarta, Indonesia
After a 36-year hiatus, Philippine volleyball's return to the continental meet was spoiled by two consecutive straight-sets losses at the hands of Thailand and Japan. The Philippines, however, recovered on its third attempt by pulling off a 25-18, 25-21, 25-22 sweep of Hong Kong.
"I'm really proud of the team," said head coach Shaq Delos Santos after the match. "In our past two games, we were feeling down but we still kept a positive mindset because we knew what the team is capable of."
Alyssa Valdez, who led the team in the breakthrough victory with 14 points, felt that facing powerhouse squads early in the tournament worked in their favor.
"Maybe we can say that the scheduling was pretty good. Playing against Thailand and then Japan, very high-class volleyball," she said. "We were beaten badly but we learned a lot. It built our confidence, to see what else we needed to improve on especially in service receive, blocking, and more."
Members of the Philippine team took pride in being part of this important milestone, especially after all the challenges that they had to overcome to get to this point.
"It feels so good because first, it's historic, and second, we really enjoyed the match. We really sacrificed a lot of things to get here," said Valdez.
"Given the time that we had to prepare for this, this win is really a huge step for Philippine volleyball, especially since it's been a while since we competed here (in the Asian Games)," added setter Jia Morado.
The whole team knows, however, that the fight does not end here. If anything, the maiden win just fueled the players' motivation to perform better as they now shift their focus on their next game against host Indonesia.
"We know that we have more to show," said Delos Santos. "We'll grab all possible opportunities to reach whatever level we can reach. We don't want to limit ourselves to just the quarterfinals. As long as there are chances, we'll grab them and prepare well."
"We can't measure the team with just one win," said Valdez. "We'll definitely look at our performance in our upcoming games because of course, we're also preparing for future tournaments."
The battle against Indonesia has bigger repercussions for the Philippine team, which is eyeing a podium finish in the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games that will be held in Manila. Indonesia, which won the bronze and silver medals in the 2015 and 2017 SEA Games respectively, will be one of the teams that the Philippines needs to topple to achieve its goal.
"Last time that we faced them was in the 2015 SEA Games," said skipper Aby Maraño. "We don't know how far their system and program have come since then. But we're also focusing on strengthening and improving volleyball in the Philippines so we'll study them well before we go to battle on the 25th."
"[Winning against Indonesia] is also one of our targets because we will compete with them in the SEA Games," Delos Santos added. "In the past experience of the team, we failed to beat Indonesia but we'll keep on trying. We have nothing to lose, and why not? The ball is round and we'll definitely give our best."