FOTON Pilipinas checked out of the Thai province of Sisaket looking ready and more prepared to compete in the Asian Volleyball Confederation Asian Women’s Club Championship starting on Saturday at the Alonte Sports Center in Biñan City.
The Tornadoes landed in Manila on Monday afternoon, following a fruitful campaign in the 2016 Sealect Tuna Thailand Volleyball League where they gained adequate experience for the Asian tournament, where the continent’s best club teams will be seeing action.
Foton Pilipinas absorbed a disappoiting setback to the Thai national team, led by stars Nootsara Tomkom and Pleumjit Thinkaow in the opener followed by a four-set meltdown against reigning Asian champion Bangkok Glass.
But it didn’t crush the morale of the Tornadoes as they stormed back with victories over Rangsit University and Kasetsart University in the classification phase.
The Filipinas, however, fell prey to 3BB Nokhonnont in its last battle, 25-19, 19-25, 24-26, 14-25, to settle for sixth place.
Foton Pilipinas Head Coach Fabio Menta of Italy emphasized that the result hardly mattered as he sees a lot of positives in the young team powered by Americans Lindsay Stalzer and Ariel Usher with Jovelyn Gonzaga of RC Cola-Army, Aby Marano of F2 Logistics and Jen Reyes of Petron serving as guest players.
“We’re quite positive,” said Menta, who was formally appointed head coach two weeks ago. “We played against quicker, more experienced players and gave court time to our younger Filipino players.”
“This is what the club wanted to achieve and if you consider that we only worked together for two weeks and without two key players in Jaja [Santiago] and Jovelyn, coming back home with two victories is already a great result,” he added.
Ba’yi Army Shenzheng of China will be parading Asian U23 Most Valuable Player Liu Yanhan and Olympic star Yuan Xinyue, while Bangkok Glass of Thailand will be bannered by Vietnamese middle blocker Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hoa and American wing spiker Ashley Frazier. NEC Red Rockets of Japan will also be tough as high-flying opener Sarina Koga will carry the cudgels together with Olympic star Haruyo Shimamura.