Alas Pilipinas essayed a historic finish to its campaign as it registered a 25-23, 25-15, 25-7 victory over Australia in the bronze medal match of the AVC Challenge Cup.

After looking shaky and tentative in the opening set, the Filipinas regained their groove and displayed their killer instinct in the second and third sets to pull off the historic victory that was witnessed by a capacity crowd inside the 90-year-old Rizal Memorial Coliseum.

The bronze medal was the country’s first medal in women’s volleyball since coming up with a podium finish in the 23rd edition of the Southeast Asian Games in Bacolod City 29 years ago.

It was also the best finish of the Filipina spikers in the Asian arena since emerging fourth in the 1962 Jakarta and 1966 Asian Games in Bangkok and the first medal in an AVC tournament.

With that, Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go offered a cash reward of P200,000 to each member of the team, including the coaching staff.

‘It feels surreal.’

Vietnam and Kazakhstan, which hammered a straight-set win over the Filipinas in the semifinals late Tuesday, are still clashing for the gold medal at press time.

Although the Challenge Cup, which offers a ticket to the FIVB Challenger Cup and the prestigious Volleyball Nations League is considered a mere second-tier tournament due to the absence of elite teams like China, South Korea, Japan and Thailand, carving out a historic finish at home is still a feel-good moment.

Skipper Jia de Guzman, who took a break from her Japanese campaign just to lead the young core of Alas Pilipinas in its historic quest, admitted that they marched into battle with zero expectation.

“It feels surreal,” De Guzman said.

“Actually, I think it’s going to take a while for it to sink in because we went into this game not expecting anything. We went and we’re not expecting anything, and now we’re going home with a medal.”

She added that she hopes the momentum they gained will serve as springboard for future international tourneys, including the 33rd SEA Games that will be held in Thailand next year.

“It’s been years, decades since the last medal so we’re so thankful,” she said.

“We’re really hopeful, we’re looking forward to more preparations for the upcoming tournaments that we will play in, because if we show this now, we just hope that we keep improving.”

Angel Canino was at her best, hammering 13 of her 14 total points on attacks while Sisi Rondina finished with 13 markers for Alas Pilipinas, which also drew solid numbers from Eya Laure, Thea Gagate and Fifi Sharma.

Laure, who represents the future of the national team, chipped in 10, while Gagate and Sharma combined for 17.

Brazilian coach Edson Jorge Souza de Brito was elated, saying that it was a perfect send-off gift for him as he heads to yet another assignment starting 1 July.

“I have no words to express how happy I am and also, not for myself only, I told these guys in the beginning, they deserve a lot. They really deserve it,” said de Brito, whose contract was not renewed by the Philippine National Volleyball Federation to give way for a new international mentor.

“They fought every single day since they were really young to make history here, and now history has been made because of them because they trusted themselves today, they came.”