Alas Girls to make historic Round-of-16 stint

SAN FELIPE, Chile — Alas Pilipinas Girls dropped their final game in the group stage.

But a five-setter defeat was enough for the Filipinas to book a ticket for a historic Round of 16 appearance in the 2026 FIVB Volleyball Girls U17 World Championship.

The Philippines has set a new benchmark at a volleyball world championship after forcing higher-ranked Venezuela to a match decider before eventually falling short, 19-25, 16-25, 25-22, 25-19, 11-15, on Wednesday at the Liceo Mixto San Felipe here.

A five-set result, albeit on the losing side, earned Alas enough points to march into the next round along with Pool B leader unbeaten defending champion China, world No. 12 Venezuela and Peru.

Alas stumbled in its last two outings after winning back-to-back games over world No. 8 Mexico and No. 20 Tunisia.

The Pinay spikers lost to the Chinese in straight sets to open their campaign, won two in a row before bowing to the Peruvians in four sets on Tuesday and to the Venezuelans.

Alas actually ended tied with Mexico with identical 2-3 slates but got the last bus ride to the next phase with a higher match point earned, 7-6.

Caera Celis, Xyz Rayco and Jhaynna Bulandres found their spark again as the Alas Girls surpassed the Bryan Bagunas-led squad that fell just short of that stage at 19th in the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship held in Manila last year and the team which placed 18th in the 1974 FIVB Women’s Volleyball World Championship in Mexico.

Alas will try to push for another milestone when it takes on unbeaten South Korea today at 8 a.m. (Manila time) for a quarterfinals berth as action transfers to the capital city of Santiago.

Alas coach Edwin Leyva credited the players for adapting quickly, from coping with chilly 4-degree temperatures to learning on the fly against teams they have previously seen only on video.

“China is clearly on a different level. But against the rest of the pool, I believed we had a chance, if only we had more time to train and gel. Still, they’ve matured a lot playing matches at this level,” he said.

The team went from tears to cheers as it pushed Venezuela hard after falling to a 0-2 hole.