Alas Pilipinas drew closer to the podium after the duo of Sisi Rondina-Rosales and Bernadeth Pons and the pair of Khylem Progella and Sofiah Pagara advanced to the quarterfinals of the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games women’s beach volleyball on Monday at the Hekinan Ryokuchi Beach Court.

Rosales and Pons crushed the host Japan tandem of Sakura Ito and Mayu Sawame, 21-17, 21-15, in a huge rebound win after a sorry loss at the end of pool play.

The reigning Southeast Asian Games champion squad relied on their battle-tested chemistry and fluidity on the sands to silence the home bets.

It was a morale-boosting victory for the veteran tandem as they recovered from a three-set loss to Kazakhstan in Pool E last Friday.

“Honestly, our last from the past game made us stronger. We can’t accept that we played that way. Coming here, as coach said, we treated this as our final game. So, if we can win this one, we believe we can push our team up to the final as long as we move right,” Rondina-Rosales said.

Earlier, Progella and Pagara secured their quarters seat after eliminating Hong Kong’s Ngok Lin Chang and Man Ching Wong, 26-24, 21-18.

The Filipinas flirted with disaster in the opening set after squandering a comfortable lead before holding on in the extended frame. Progella and Pagara erected an early second set separation and kept Hong Kong at bay the rest of the way.

“We tried to be patient. We know it’s not going to be easy for us but we fought as hard as we can,” Progella said.

A possible all-Filipino semifinal loom if both Alas teams hurdle their quarters opponents on Wednesday.

Rosales and Pons will take on Thailand’s Taravadee Naraphornrapat and Worapeerachayakorn Kongphopsarytawadee in the next round while Progella and Pagara square off against Japan’s Non Matsumoto and Ren Matsumoto.

The Thais turned back Kazakhstan, 21-8, 21-7, in the Round of 16 while the Japanese sent Kyrgyzstan packing, 21-10, 21-12.

The Philippines, represented by Dij Rodriguez and Gene Eslapor, was eliminated in the quarterfinal of the pandemic-delayed Hangzhou edition three years ago.