The young national squad is leaving Thailand without a win.
On paper, Sunday’s match seemed like a repeat of the Philippines and Indonesia’s Leg 1 battle in the SEA VLeague from a week ago, where the Indonesians triumphed over the Filipinos to keep the latter winless.
The Philippines did lose again to Indonesia in Sunday’s Leg 2 match, 22-25, 25-21, 25-22, 26-24. But it wasn’t the same story.
The young national squad came out roaring, winning the first set after displaying poise against a tough Indonesian side. While the Filipina volleybelles did concede the succeeding two sets, they pushed their Southeast Asian foes to the limit.
And as Indonesia looked to finish the match in the fourth set, the Philippine nationals capped off a strong run to erase a three-point, 14-11 deficit, and then take a four-point lead to turn the tables at 21-17.
Indonesia made a run of their own to tie things up at 22, but Vange Alinsug completed a kill to regain the lead, while an AC Miner kill block brought them to set point, 24-22. One more point and the match goes to a do-or-die fifth set.
Only it went downhill for the Filipina spikers at that point, giving up four straight points to bow down to the Indonesians.
X (formerly Twitter) user Daniel Bautista opted to stay positive, but still couldn’t hide the disappointment.
“Sayang ‘yung fourth set!!! Nice game, Philippines!!!”
Volleyball fan Toffee attributes the shortcomings to the squad’s youth.
“Bagets pa talaga. Lalo na decision making at plays. Hilaw na hilaw. Pero nice game pa rin.”
Netizen @grenelynsofia thinks coach Jorge de Brito, who took out setter Camille Lamina during a crucial stretch in the fourth set, is to blame.
"Four-point lead na nahabol pa. This is on you De Britz."
@RandUMPacct is on the same boat as @grenelynsofia.
“Ganda ng laro tapos sub.”
X user @Rizeth3, on the other hand, thinks the nationals could have become less predictable, including Lamina herself.
“Lams alam n nila kay bela (Bella Belen) mo bbigay ung bola, change strategy sana,” the netizen wrote.
@_naixuans, meanwhile, believes the youngsters could polish their game further.
“Errors talaga pumapatay [ng] chances eh.”
With a winless stint in both legs of the SEA VLeague, the national team has their work cut out for them from here on out.