Alas Pilipinas in must win against Chinese Taipei to advance in AVC semifinals

Games on Thursday
(Candon City Arena)
9 a.m. – Vietnam vs Iran
Noon – Lebanon vs Kazakhstan
3 p.m. – Alas Pilipinas vs Chinese Taipei
6 p.m. – South Korea vs Australia
9 p.m. – Kyrgyzstan vs Uzbekistan

CANDON CITY, Ilocos Sur — It now boiled down to this one game.

The one game that would decide if Alas Pilipinas would get to advance to the AVC Women’s Volleyball Cup semfiinals or not.

For it to happen though, the Filipinas would need to hope and pray for two things — one is to beat the Taiwanese on Thursday at the Candon City Arena and the other is for the latter to lose to the South Koreans on Friday.

But first things first is the Chinese Taipei 3 p.m. showdown.

“We need to keep on fighting and learning whatever happens,” said Alas’ interim coach Shaq Delos Santos, whose team was formed just around two weeks before this nine-day continental meet.

The Nationals were pushed on the brink after falling to the heavily favored Koreans, 25-16, 25-18, 25-22, on Tuesday, the former’s second defeat in as many triumphs.

It pushed the host down to third in its bracket, behind South Korea and Chinesse Taipei, who are both currently unscathed in three outings.

Despite the loss to South Korea, which was hoping to reclaim its Volleyball Nations League spot after being relegated last year, Mr. Delos Santos found a silver lining from their experience.

“They played more solid and we can’t totally keep up with them until the end,” he said. “Our lack of time to prepare showed but we can see that we fought despite it.”

Alas, indeed, showed some fight especially in the third set when it even took a 19-16 advantage only to let it slip away in the end.

And that is the performance Mr. Delos Santos wants to see with the team versus Chinese Taipei.

“There’s a lot of things we need to do, hope we can adjust in out next game,” he said.

For Alas captain Alyssa Valdez, playing for the flag and the country especially a day before the country’s Independence Day celebration, gives them something to fight for.

“It’s really different to represent the country, we’re honored,” she said.

Against Taipei, Alas might go with more usage for Alyssa Solomon, who unloaded a 23-point effort in a five-set defeat to Australia on Sunday, and Ara Galang, who was instrumental in strong game by the squad in the third set against South Korea.

But nothing is on paper just yet.

“We’ll see what happens,” said Mr. Delos Santos. — Joey Villar