THE Philippines Under-23 women’s volleyball squad was happy—too happy, even—to compete against regional powerhouse Japan and barely gave their opponent much of a challenge to work around with and ran off with a straight-sets win in the opening day of the second round of the 2015 Asian Women’s Under-23 Volleyball Championship at the PhilSports Arena.
Playing like a deer caught in the headlights of a truck, the national volleybelles sputtered with a surprisingly uncharacteristic performance and eventually succumbed to a 12-25, 18-25, 15-25 result last Monday, putting their campaign in peril entering the knockout phase this Thursday.
With the course of their campaign in the second round entering through a rough patch against more cohesive teams in the East Asia powerhouses Japan and Chinese Taipei, the team is most likely headed for a final round-of-eight date against either China or Thailand—both Pool F top finishers and marked as the pre-tournament favorites.
Head Coach Roger Gorayeb was the first one to admit that the team played as if they were happy to be on the same court as Japan, resulting in a performance that not only disappointed the throngs of Filipinos that came to support, but also exposed the team’s weak points.
“We know that Japan is a powerhouse, so these young players were too excited to play against this team. Ang nangyari kasi the errors are mostly misreceptions. We had too much misreceptions because they were nervous, especially during the first set. Still, it’s a very good experience for us and we’re not taking it against us,” Gorayeb said.
“We are happy to have played with Japan. It’s an honor for us to play them. They are tall, and they are fast. My only wish is we could play like them in the future. It would be a great thing for us. How I wish we could play with them every day so that we can learn how they play.”
Gorayeb also asked for patience from the team’s fans as they are still learning from their experiences against the region’s top teams in order for them to play better in future competitions and, eventually, reach the level of respectability in the international scene.
“I hope that people would understand that these girls haven’t played internationally in a very, very long time. They haven’t played for more than a decade, so to speak,” Gorayeb noted. “All they thought when they [the players] saw the ball going down, akala nila patay na ‘yung bola, but they were surprised the ball went back. It’s Japan, it’s not an ordinary team. So they are supposed to expect that.”
Image credits: Kevin de la Cruz