Phl beach spikers sink Maldives

Alas Pilipinas duo Khylem Progella and Sofiah Pagara flexed their firepower in a cakewalk win over Maldives’ Anal Fathimath and Areesha Aminath, 21-6, 21-11, to start their 20th Asian Games women’s beach volleyball campaign on Monday at the Hekinan Ryokuchi Beach Court in Nagoya.

Following in the footsteps of the other Filipina tandem Sisi Rondina-Rosales and Bernadeth Pons, the Progella-Pagara pair dominated from start to finish for a rousing start in Pool G.

It took the Philippines just 23 minutes to take down its Maldives counterpart and join Hong Kong, which beat Mongolia 21-7, 21-3 in the other pairing, on top of the pool standings.

The tandem will try to win two in a row and advance to the Round of 16 when Alas battles Mongolians Khandsuren Gantogtokh and Tsolmon Batjargal tomorrow.

Alas Men’s James Buytrago and Ronniel Rosales debuted on a winning note after sweeping Mongolia’s Amar Batmunkh and Shijir-erdene Bat-Enkh, 25-11, 25-15, in Pool C.

Buytrago and Rosales will face Vietnam, which suffered an opening-day 18-25, 15-25, loss to Indonesia, tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Ranran Abdilla and Lerry Francisco weren’t as lucky after bowing to Qatar’s Cherif Samba and Ahmed Janko, 7-21, 10-21, in Pool A.

Abdilla and Francisco will try to stay alive in the race to the knockout stage against Oman on Thursday.

Rosales and Pons opened Alas’ campaign on Sunday with a masterful 21-6, 21-6, win over Bangladesh in women’s division Pool E.