Vietnamese too much for Alas Women

BANGKOK, Thailand — Ending more than three decades of gold medal drought remained elusive for Alas Pilipinas women’s team.

The Filipina spikers, for the 28th straight year, missed the championship round after bowing to powerhouse Vietnam, 17-25, 14-25, 17-25, in the semifinal of the 33rd Southeast Asian Games women’s indoor volleyball on Sunday at the Indoor Stadium Huamark here.

Although bolstered by Eya Laure taking a piece of the action after missing the first two games due to a minor abdominal strain, Alas’ firepower paled in comparison to what the Vietnamese packed.

Alas, runner-up in the 1997 Jakarta edition before missing the finals since then, kept the game close in the early going of each set, only to lose steam midway. Vietnam capitalized each time to pull away for good with blistering runs aided by Alas’ miscues.

“Not about the result, but the consistency that we want is not yet there. But they did good. Our team did good but they did better than us,” Alas head coach Jorge Souza de Brito said.

“It’s a competition, always. If they did better than us, even if we played really good, they beat us and we have to accept it and learn from this one.”

Alas still has a chance to salvage some measure of pride by aiming to end a 20-year medal drought in the battle for bronze Monday at 4 p.m. (Manila time) against Indonesia.

Reigning 14-time champion Thailand will meet Vietnam in a fourth straight championship showdown at 6 p.m.

Alyssa Solomon scored 10 points to lead Alas. Angel Canino had 10 points while Laure, who skipped the pool play to recover from a minor abdominal strain, chipped in with seven points for Alas, which threw away 18 points from errors compared to only seven by Vietnam.