Volleyball Nations League for men and women at Big Dome
By Joey Villar
THE world’s best volleyball countries descend to the Philippines when the country hosts Week Two of the Volleyball Nations League (VNL) for women slated for June 14-19 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Tokyo Olympics gold medalist and three-time VNL champion United States will spearhead the ultra-powerful cast that also included Asian champion Japan and Southeast Asian (SEA) Games gold winner Thailand.
Asian powerhouse China, Belgium, Bulgaria and Canada are also seeing action in the six-day event.
The country will also host Week Two of the men’s side set June 21-26 that would also be participated in by France, Japan, Slovenia, Argentina. Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and China also at the Big Dome.
Quezon City Vice-Mayor Gian Carlo G. Sotto, representing host Mayor Joy Belmonte, thanked the organizing Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) for bringing the major event to the city.
“We are here to make sure everything will be safe,” said Mr. Sotto.
The Japanese and the Thais were the first to arrive after flying in on Wednesday.
Japan was riding the crest of its perfect 4-0 performance in the opening week in Shreveport-Bossier City in the US and should be one of the favorites to wow the volleyball-loving Filipino crowd.
Thailand, for its part, has been nothing short of impressive in Week One after a shock five-set win over China.
Interestingly, it was the Chinese’ only defeat in four outings to keep the No. 2 spot with 10 points.
Meanwhile, a revamp is looming over the horizon for the national men and women volleyball teams that failed to take home a medal in the Hanoi SEA Games last month.
Expect the PNVF to lean towards that direction next month as it hopes to strengthen the team that painfully crashed out of medal contention in Hanoi.
The country wound up fourth of five in the women’s division and fifth of seventh in the men’s side.
But first, the Philippine National Teams will play Thailand on Saturday and Japan the next day for the women’s team, and Japan on June 16 and Germany on June 27 for the men’s squad at the Filoil Flying V Arena in San Juan City.
