Alas Pilipinas dismantles Australians

Alas Pilipinas sustained its strong performance with a quick work of Australia, 25-13, 25-15, 25-20, to finish the 2025 VTV Cup preliminary round with back-to-back wins Tuesday at the Vinh Phuc Gymnasium in Vietnam.

Usual suspects, Filipino-Americans Brooke Van Sickle and MJ Phillips, delivered the goods in the Filipinas’ dominating victory for a 2-1 win-loss record in Pool A.

The Petro Gazz duo displayed its fine form and had plenty of help from crowd favorite Leila Cruz and veteran winger Vanie Gandler to dispose of the winless Australians.

“I’m very happy of course. I think we’re top two now in our bracket. We’re gonna use this win to move forward and do better hopefully in the next round,” Gandler said.

Alas, riding the crest of their four-set victory over Chinese club Sichuan Wuliangchun last Monday, controlled the game early with superb defensive effort at the net and skipper Jia de Guzman orchestrating the team’s relentless attacks to punish Australia.

The Filipinas barely felt the absence of seasoned spiker Eya Laure, who skipped action for the second straight game due to an illness.

Alas could end up as No. 2 seed in the crossover knockout quarterfinal for a collision course against Thailand’s Est Cola if unbeaten Vietnam defeats Sichuan in their game being played as of press time.

“Thailand is a very strong team so we can’t relax and hopefully we get to make adjustments with our lapses today and keep improving and moving forward,” Gandler added.

Quarterfinals action begins on Thursday.

Young guns Amie Provido and Alleiah Malaluan also contributed to the rout.

Provido smashed a floater to push Alas at set point in the second frame before Malaluan sealed the frame.

The pair also took the spotlight in the third set with Malaluan hammering a kill for match point, 24-19. Australia saved a match point before Provido closed the door on the Aussies with a solid kill block to cap the convincing triumph.

Alas’ lone loss came at the hands of Vietnam last Sunday in a rematch of the AVC Nations Cup championship three weeks ago.