Alas Pilipinas’ bid for a quarterfinal seat in the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games women’s volleyball competition ended after two days.

All the Filipinas could do now is wait for their next opponent in the classification round and hope for a decent finish before going home.

The Philippines’ hopes of advancing to the knockout stage were crushed by Kazakhstan, 29-27, 24-26, 23-25, 19-25, on Thursday at the Okazaki Chuo Sogo Park Gymnasium.

Alas gave the Kazakhs a serious scare and even drew first blood but playing chase the whole match just didn’t cut it as the Filipinas wrapped up Pool B winless in two starts.

The Kazakhs are through to the Last Eight alongside three-peat-seeking China, which swept Alas on Wednesday. Kazakhstan and China will close the group stage today.

Alas, back in the Asiad after skipping the Hangzhou edition three years ago, was relegated in the classification round starting on Sunday. The Aby Marano-captained Alas finished eighth in the 2018 edition in Indonesia. 

Angel Canino continued to shine for Alas after scoring a game-high 24 points on 20 attacks, two kill blocks and two aces, to go with nine digs and four excellent receptions in a wasted effort.

Alyssa Solomon added 20 markers built on 15 kills, four kill blocks and a service winner while contributing on defense with 15 digs for Alas, which shot itself in the foot with 29 errors.  

The Pinay spikers mounted a spirited rally from a 22-24 deficit in the first set, saving two set points before Canino put Alas at set-point advantage with a kill, 25-24.

Kazakhstan saved three set points before Canino and Laure put the frame away for Alas with back-to-back kills.

Down 15-22 in the second set, Alas rallied with a 9-2 run behind Solomon’s five points and tied it at 24 after a Canino hammer. Kazakhstan tied the match following a kill from Polina Ufimtseva and an error by Thea Gagate.

It was also tight in the third, but the Kazakhs broke out of a 20-20 deadlock. Smelling blood and seeing Alas already down in the fourth frame, Kazakhstan moved in for the kill.

Tatyana Nikitina had 19 points, Zhanna Syroyeshkina scored 17 and Ufimtseva got 14 for Kazakhstan.