By John Bryan Ulanday
THE Philippine women’s volleyball team bowed to Indonesia, 21-25, 17-25, 25-21, 21-25, to settle for a bronze medal anew in the second stop of the inaugural ASEAN Grand Prix at the Sta. Rosa Multipurpose Sports Complex in Laguna on Sunday.
Veteran spiker Jovelyn Gonzaga nailed 14 points on 12 hits aside from 11 receptions while Alyssa Valdez chalked up 13 markers and 18 digs, in a losing cause for the home team which failed to improve on its similar third-place finish in the first leg held in Thailand a few weeks ago.
Playmaker Jia Morado dished 22 sets but her other usual attackers in Mylene Paat (9) and Ces Molina (6) got silenced en route to the painful loss of the Philippine volleybelles who even dragged the Indonesians to a thrilling five-setter match in the Thailand leg.
Pertiwi Megawati Hangestri erupted for 26 points on 21 kills, three blocks and two aces while Arsela Purnama Nuari and Ratri Wulandari contributed 17 and 12, respectively, for Indonesia which also repeated as the silver medalist of this first-ever ASEAN GP.
Thailand, which also mopped up the first leg, completed a sweep of the second leg once again en route to another gold medal finish after making short work of winless Vietnam, 25-21, 25-10, 25-11.
Despite the return of Valdez, Morado, Gonzaga and Maddie Madayag who missed the match versus Thailand the other day due to their club commitments, the Filipina spikers still succumbed against the visitors in the first two sets, 21-25 and 17-25.
But the nationals got energized by a frenetic Philippine home crowd as they escaped with 25-21 win in the third before falling short anew in the fourth as Indonesia proved to be the steadier team down the wire to clinch the win.
This second leg of the ASEAN GP was a test event of the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (PHISGOC) for the volleyball competition in the biennial sports tilt set for Nov.30 — Dec. 11 here.
