By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — The Philippine men’s volleyball team got off to a rough start with a 25-18, 25-18, 25-23 loss to defending champion Indonesia at the start of the preliminaries in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games at the National Olympic Stadium here.
The Filipino spikers fell into a maze of errors early, recovered a bit and engaged the Indons in furious exchange of spikes before finally giving up the fight in group stage.
Steven Rotter and Joshua Umandal spearheaded the country’s assault especially in the third frame that saw them pull to within 24-23, but a crosscourt spike from Fahri Septian Putratama sealed the victory for the Indonesians.
Despite the defeat, PH team’s Brazilian coach Sergio Veloso was unfazed.
“I think the best phrase for that is sometimes we win, sometimes the opponents win. But every time, we learn,” Veloso said.
“I told them to use their energy, put their energy out there. In the first two sets, we didn’t have that, and we only had it in the third. But I’m sure our players will learn from that,” he added.
The Indonesians showed their strength in the second frame where they led 15-9 behind the efforts of Rivan Nurmulki.
The Filipinos next face another tough rival in host Cambodia Thursday, May 4, with hopes of recovering from the loss.
Cambodia is actually the bronze medalist in the previous edition held in Vietnam last year.
The PH team aims to match or better its historic silver medal finish in the 2019 edition held in Manila. They finished a dismal fifth last year.
