THE Philippines women’s volleyball team crashed back to earth after running into a brick wall, yielding a 25-12, 25-18, 25-15 decision to a mighty Japan side at the start of the second round of the 2015 Asian Women’s U-23 Volleyball Championship on Monday at the PhilSports Arena.
The more disciplined Japanese contingent, which was assembled just two weeks prior to the tournament, got the best of the home team by combining their superior height and speed in neutralizing the relatively inexperienced hosts, who shot themselves in the foot with untimely errors throughout the match.
In the first set, the nationals went through a very rough start and trailed by 9-16 and never recovered. Then, in the next two sets, the Japanese broke the early ties and held serve to pull away from the Philippines for good.
During the second set, Japan broke a 5-5 tie and managed to keep the service on their end—led by the concerted exploits of Yuka Imamura, Mami Miura, Kaori Mabashi, and Mika Shibata—to build a 16-8 lead and give their second stringers a chance to get some valuable playing time on the court.
Early in the third set, the Philippines made the match momentarily interesting once again by taking a slim 8-5 lead. But the PHL 5 once again wilted under the pressure despite playing against Japan’s second stringers, as the height disadvantage was hard to go around and saw their shots misfired.
Diego de la Paz
Image credits: KEVIN DE LA CRUZ