By NIKOLE JAVIER
The Philippine women’s team dropped its first two games – the latest was against powerhouse China – in the 2022 Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Cup for Women on Tuesday night, Aug. 23 at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City.
The Nationals – represented by the PVL champions Creamline Cool Smashers – remain hopeful though.
And they believe their next two games – which are both vital – won’t be the same with Jia Morado-de Guzman around and doing the things she’s known for on the floor.
They suffered a 25-16, 25-22, 25-20 defeat to the towering Chinese side, but there were times they thought they had the game under control after leading 12-8 and 18-15 in the third set.
That was after they gave the Chinese some anxious moments in the second set where they rallied from a 22-19 deficit to tie the knot the count at 22-all.
There were many missed opportunities during that game something that Morado and company can learn from in improving their skills and strategies.
In fact both Morado and coach Sherwin Meneses were quite satisfied the way they played against the Chinese despite the absence of ace spiker Alyssa Valdez.
“We gave our best for today’s game going up against China and being able to stick up to them for the most part of the game… it’s something that we can be proud of,” said Morado.
For his part, Meneses said: Proud ako dahil maganda pa rin yung nilaro nilang game. Hindi basta-basta nagpatalo. Hopefully yung intensity mas tumaas pa sa mga susunod na games.”
Charming but deadly Michele Gumabao readily agreed.
“I think as a team, mas maganda ‘yong naging performance namin today. So, it’s looking good. Jia’s first game back and at least nandoon ‘yong improvement every single day. So itong three-day (game) na tuluy-tuloy, talagang mate-test namin ‘yong galaw ng team,” said Gumabao.
“Kung makapuntos ka, kung ma-block ka, ko-cover kami. So lahat naman kami sa team pinapasan namin ‘yong responsibility na ‘yon. Kung sino na lang talaga ‘yong kamay maganda sa loob, kung sino na lang talaga may momentum. Then, ‘yon. We’ll work with that,” added Gumabao.
Standing on thin ice, the Nationals need to beat the Iranians Wednesday and the young South Korea squad on Thursday, Aug. 25 for them to advance to the quarters.
