Alas Pilipinas Men prevail by walkover

Alas Pilipinas took a walkover win over Kyrgyzstan for a 13th-place finish at the conclusion of its Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games men’s volleyball competition campaign on Saturday.

The Philippines ended its run with a victory without breaking a sweat after the Kyrgyz squad forfeited its scheduled final game at the Park Arena Komaki on the eve of the match, declaring Alas winners by default.

“Due to the confirmation from the Kyrgyzstan team that they will not participate in Match #42 between Kyrgyzstan and the Philippines, the match will be declared a forfeit. The official result will be recorded as 3-0 in favor of the Philippines,” the competition organizer said in an official statement released Friday night.

The official recorded match result was 25-0, 25-0, 25-0.

Alas halted a four-game slide on Friday at the expense of Uzbekistan, 25-19, 25-15, 23-25, 25-17, in the classification round for its first win in the competition.

Bryan Bagunas fired 26 points to lead Alas, who went winless in three games in the pool stage and dropped its first match in the classification against regional rival Indonesia.

“Thank you for being there for us. We ended our campaign in the Asian Games with a win over Uzbekistan. In every game, we represented the Philippines with pride and honor,” Bagunas wrote in a social media post following the news of Kyrgyzstan’s forfeiture.