Pinay beach spikers overpower Bangladesh

Sisi Rondina-Rosales and Bernadeth Pons put on a masterclass on the sand as Alas Pilipinas overwhelmed Bangladesh in straight sets, 21-6, 21-6, for a strong start in the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games women’s beach volleyball competition on Sunday at the Hekinan Ryokuchi Beach Court.

The Filipina duo barely broke a sweat in disposing of Most Lucky and Most Sabina Khatun in just 28 minutes of play in Pool E.

Alas went down to work early and simply outclassed the Bangladeshis with superb placements and relentless attacks.

“We just tried to play well. We wanted to show what we trained coming here early and tried out our additional plays. I guess we also took advantage of our service game, which we really worked on,” Rosales said.

The 2025 Southeast Asian Games gold medalists built double-digit leads that Bangladesh just couldn’t recover from.

It was an Asiad debut to remember for the pair.

“I think I was a little too serious in the first few parts of the game. I was thinking to myself, ‘Why am I too serious?’ I guess the Asian Games is different but you don’t need to forget to enjoy every moment of it,” Pons said.

“Even Sisi was telling me, ‘Hey, celebrate with me!’” she added.

The Alas tandem will take on Kazakhstan’s Merey Kozhakhmet and Laura Kabulbekova on Friday.

Meanwhile, the other Alas pair of Khylem Progella and Sofia Pagara battles the Maldives duo of Anal Fathimath and Areesha Aminath in Pool G today, starting at 8 a.m.

The two Alas Men squads are also making their debuts.

Ranran Abdilla and Lerry Francisco facing off against Cherif Samba and Ahmed Janko of Qatar while James Buytrago and Ronniel Rosales are taking on Mongolia’s Amar Batmunkh and Shijir-erdene Bat-enkh.