NAGOYA, Japan —For Alas Pilipinas Women, the Aichi-Nagoya 20th Asian Games was about the chance to compete for a medal and ninth place was never the dream, but it became the best outcome after their quarterfinal hopes were cut short.

So the Filipinas had to shift gears and head coach Taka Minowa gave them a new target—win all three classification games and finish as high as they could.

They did exactly that and closed out with a straight-set win over Hong Kong, 25-21, 25-9, 30-28, on Tuesday night to seal ninth place—a victory the Filipinas clinched ahead of the women’s volleyball gold medal match won by China, 25-19, 25-20, 25-23, at the Okazaki Chuo Sogo Park Gymnasium.

But the victories do not change the fact that they did not reach their goal—Alas came to Nagoya wanting more, knowing they can do more.

China and Kazakhstan stopped their run with the Chinese sweeping the Filipinas, 18-25, 22-25, 8-25, and the Kazakhs earning a 29-27, 24-26, 25-23, 25-19 victory.

The Kazakhstan match showed two sides of this Alas team—enough fight and firepower to push a stronger opponent, but not enough consistency to finish the job.

New goal, new mindset. The medal was gone, but the tournament wasn't.

Minowa made sure his players understood that. Three games remained, and all had to go their way. Alas took care of business, beating Qatar (25-8, 25-2, 25-9), Mongolia (25-13, 25-11, 25-20) and Hong Kong to close on a three-game winning streak.

For Angel Canino, the wins mattered.

“Actually, happy kami. Although hindi 'yun yung gusto naming overall goal sa Asian Games, happy kami sa lahat ng wins namin… yung mga nagawa namin as a team and, of course, yung learning experience,” Canino said.

It was Canino's first Asian Games.

“Grabeng achievement siguro individually… such an amazing experience na makasama ko my ates, na makasama ako sa Philippine national team. Kasi yung iba diyan, ini-idolize ko din,” she said.

Bella Belen was candid about what the tournament exposed.

“Iba. Iba talaga yung laruan. Ang dami naming napulot, lalo na sa amin mga bata,” she said. “Alam namin na meron pang dapat itaas. Taas pa namin yung level of playing namin.”

It showed what needs to improve. Minowa also saw progress after facing China and Kazakhstan.

“Actually, I think we have improvements… we have a lot to gain, experience. We became better team,” Belen added.

But now comes the harder part: How do you turn those lessons into actual progress?

Promising sign is that Canino is already looking five years ahead, hoping for a quarterfinal breakthrough and Belen saying the same thing—she wants to be back and finish higher.

So yes, Alas Pilipinas Women finish ninth. But ninth needs context. It was the best they could do after the medal run ended.

They came to Nagoya wanting a medal. They leave with ninth place but a clearer idea of how to get closer to one.