ALAS Pilipinas plunges into a must-win match against New Zealand in the AVC Women’s Volleyball Nations Cup today, Wednesday, in Hanoi.
Sporting a 2-1 card after a heart-breaker to Iran last Monday, Alas Pilipinas needs to hurdle New Zealand and Kazakhstan on Thursday to stay alive for the semifinals of the 11-nation competition.
Angel Canino, who has become the go-to gal of the team with her consistency at the net, felt they have a strong chance against the Kiwis, who nailed their first win after two matches—a five-setter over Mongolia—on Monday night.
“Ate Jia (Morado-de Guzman, team captain) keeps our spirits up,” Canino said during Tuesday’s tournament rest day. “She told us that we have more matches coming up and that we keep our chins up—we fight to the end.”
The Philippines-New Zealand match is set at 4 p.m. (Manila time) at the Dong Anh Arena in Vietnam’s capital.
“Whatever outcome we had in this tournament, we’ve continued to learn and improve,” added Canino, a former top rookie and most valuable player of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines.
Alas Pilipinas coach Jorge Edson Souza de Brito made the most of the day off from the matches and engaged the girls in a pep talk that bordered on not giving up.
“The mindset is to always fight hard,” he said.
Kazakhstan and Iran are 3-0 in Pool B, with Indonesia and Mongolia down at 0-3, while host Vietnam leads Pool A with a 2-0 card, followed by Chinese-Taipei with 2-1, Australia 1-1, Hong Kong 1-2 and India 0-2.
The top two teams from each group advance to the semifinals.
