Alas Pilipinas’ Sofiah Pagara and Khy Progella emerged as the last Filipino pair standing after the Philippines was denied an all-Filipino semifinals affair in the Asian Games women’s beach volleyball on Wednesday.
Pagara and Progella booked their fifth straight win, outlasting Japanese Ren and Non Matsumoto, 24-22, 22-20, on Wednesday at Hekinan Ryokuchi Beach Court.
However, Sisi Rondina and Bernadeth Pons weren’t able to forge an all-Philippines showdown after falling short against Thailand’s Taravadee Naraphonapat and Worapeerachayakorn Kongphopsarutawadee, 17-21, 21-12, 13-15.
Pons and Rondina were two points away from completing an epic comeback, 13-11, but the Thais scored four straight points to get away with the victory and set up a semifinal clash with Progella and Pagara.
The tandem dubbed as SiPons couldn’t repeat their Pingtung Open semis victory against the Thais. Kongphopsarutawadee also exacted sweet revenge on the Filipinos after losing in the Southeast Asian Games final last December.
The unbeaten Filipino pair of Progrella and Pagara survived a neck-and-neck duel against the resilient home bets, squandering a 19-16 lead in the second.
The Matsumotos tied the set at 19 before Progella stopped the bleeding. Ren forced another deadlock, but Pagara took matters into her own hands, scoring off the block to regain match point, 21-20. She ended a long rally scoring off Japan’s overpass to advance to the semis.
Pagara and Progella carry the Philippines’ hopes to win a beach volleyball gold medal, as the first pair from the country to reach the Asian Games semis.
The other semis bracket features an all-Chinese duel, with Shuting Cao and Jie Dong taking on Xinyi Xia and Xu Yan.