The Philippine women's volleyball team recovered from a slow start to force a deciding fifth set but Kazakhstan held on to come away with a heart-stopping 25-11, 22-25, 25-15, 19-25, 16-14 victory in the 2018 Asian Games Friday in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The Filipinas played their best game of the tournament so far as they pushed Kazakhstan to the edge before eventually falling short in the last two rallies.
Coming off an impressive performance against China, Jaja Santiago once again displayed her scoring prowess. The towering spiker evaded defenders to deliver 19 points built on 17 spikes and two aces.
Mylene Paat also stepped up on offense, contributing 14 points off 11 spikes, two aces, and a block. Alyssa Valdez, meanwhile, had an all-around outing of 13 points, 24 receptions, and 18 digs.
Back-to-back points from Santiago and Paat allowed the Philippines to race to a 6-3 lead in Set 5 before Kazakhstan made it a tight back-and-forth battle. A down-the-line hit by Valdez made it 10-9 for PH but the Kazakhs strung together a pair of points to steal the advantage.
The Filipinos continued to fight, forcing deadlock after deadlock, including a crucial attack from Paat that ended a thrilling long rally. A service error from the Kazakhs tied the score for the last time at 14-all, before Alessya Safronova clinched the match with two consecutive points.
Kazakhstan's solid blocking and aggressive serving prevented the Philippines from gaining any momentum in the opening frame, but the Filipino spikers bounced back and found their groove in the second set.
The Kazakhs dominated once more in Set 3, but the Philippines simply refused to give up, topping by as many as eight points in the fourth period to extend the contest.
Yana Petronko led the charge for Kazakhstan with 18 points including five kill blocks, while Sana Anarkulova added 15 markers.
The Philippines will battle Indonesia for seventh place on Saturday in a rematch of their preliminary round game won by the hosts in four sets.