SEAG battle gets tougher

This is going to be very challenging for us.

With the women’s volleyball competition of the 30th Southeast Asian Games SEAG employing a round-robin format, national team head coach Shaq De los Santos believes that they have to work doubly hard to hit their goal of emerging with a podium finish.

De los Santos said the road to medal suddenly gets tougher after the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (Phisgoc) decided to adopt a new format following the withdrawal of Malaysia from the prestigious biennial meet that the country would host from 30 November to 11 December.

Based on the old format, teams would be divided into two groups with the top two from both groups clashing in crossover semifinals to determine the finalists.

But with the Malaysians pulling out, organizers had no choice but to adopt a round-robin format, where the Philippines would have to win over Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam to gain a handsome chance of emerging with a medal.

“This is going to be very challenging for us,” said De los Santos, whose Petron squad will be facing F2 Logistics in the sudden-death finals of the Philippine Superliga Invitational Conference.

“Unlike in the old format where we have a chance to avoid stronger teams, every game would be very important in the new format so we always have to be at our best every game.”

“It looks like a knockout format. So we have to give our best every game.”

The Philippines has yet to win a medal in the 11-nation tourney since emerging with a bronze in the country’s last hosting in 2005.

Now, they have a golden chance to make it, not just because the country would be hosting anew, but because of the kind of talent they have right now like Filipino-American Kalei Mau, Alyssa Valdez, Jia Morado, Dawn Macandili and Majoy Baron.

In the previous two editions of the ASEAN Grand Prix, in fact, the Philippines clinched a bronze medal, making it a more favored squad than perennial third-placer Vietnam.

“It’s a big factor that we already played against them in the ASEAN Grand Prix. At least we were able to gauge their strengths and weaknesses,” De los Santos said.

“Also, it gave us a chance to prepare and adjust against the teams we’re going to face.”