Across two continents, two Alas Pilipinas teams made impacts for the world to see.
In San Felipe, Chile, the Filipinas preyed on the Tunisians, 27-25, 25-19, 25-16, Saturday to claim a second win in a row in the FIVB Volleyball Girls U17 World Championship and close in on a historic Round-of-16 seat.
Over in Chiang Mai, Thailand, the Nationals downed the Indonesians, 25-13, 23-25, 25-19, 33-31, yesterday to snatch silver in the SEA V.League Leg 2 – the Philippines’ best finish in the annual event.
‘They did it,’ said Alas Women coach Taka Minowa moments after the feat.
The Alas Women will finish second to the Thais regardless of the result of the latter’s duel with the Vietnamese.
It was redemption of sorts for the Filipinas, who wound up winless and fourth and last in Leg 1 in Hanoi, Vietnam, a week ago.
But Minowa knows they will face more challenges as they gear up for next month’s Asian Games in Aichi, Japan.
‘We only trained for 15 days, we’re just starting the program. Lots of space to improve this team,’ he said.
For their part, the Alas Girls shed their underdog tag, running wild with a second straight win after preying on the Tunisians, who are ranked higher at No. 20 against the former’s No. 25.
The Filipinas relied on the old connection of spiker Xyz Rayco and setter Resty Olaguir and Caera Celis’ team-leading 15 points in leaping to a share of second with the Peruvians on 2-1 records, just a shade behind the powerhouse Chinese, the reigning titlists who are unbeaten in three matches in Pool B.
It came a day after Alas’ four-set win over No. 8 Mexico, which happened to be its first win in this biennial meet now on its second edition after the inaugural event in Lima, Peru.