Alas Women: We’re not yet done

NAGOYA, Japan — For Alas Pilipinas Women, the 20th Asian Games was about the chance to compete for a medal, and a ninth-place finish was never the dream, but it became the best outcome after their quarterfinal hopes were cut short.

So the Filipinas had to shift gears, and head coach Taka Minowa gave them a new target: win all three classification games and finish as high as they could.

They did exactly that and closed out with a straight-set win over Hong Kong, 25-21, 25-9, 30-28, on Tuesday night to seal ninth place, a victory the Filipinas clinched ahead of the women’s volleyball gold medal match won by China, 25-19, 25-20, 25-23, at the Okazaki Chuo Sogo Park Gymnasium.

But the victories do not change the fact that they did not reach their goal as Alas came here wanting more, knowing they can do more.

China and Kazakhstan stopped their run with the Chinese sweeping the Filipinas, 18-25, 22-25, 8-25, and the Kazakhs earning a 29-27, 24-26, 25-23, 25-19 victory.

The Kazakhstan match showed two sides of this Alas team — enough fight and firepower to push a stronger opponent, but not enough consistency to finish the job.

New goal, new mindset. The medal was gone, but the tournament wasn’t.

Minowa made sure his players understood that. Three games remained, and all had to go their way. Alas took care of business, beating Qatar (25-8, 25-2, 25-9), Mongolia (25-13, 25-11, 25-20) and Hong Kong to close on a three-game winning streak.

For Angel Canino, the wins mattered.

“Actually, we’re happy. Although that wasn’t our ultimate goal for the Asian Games, we’re happy with all of our wins… what we achieved as a team and, of course, the learning experience,” Canino said.

It was Canino’s first Asian Games stint.

“It’s such a huge achievement individually… an amazing experience to be with my ates [older teammates], and to be part of the Philippine national team. Because some of them, I actually idolize,” she said.

Bella Belen was candid about what the tournament exposed.

“It’s totally different. The level of play is really on another tier. We learned so much, especially us younger players,” she said.

“We know there’s still room for improvement. We need to raise our level of play even further.”

It showed what needs to improve. Minowa also saw progress after facing China and Kazakhstan.

“Actually, I think we have improved. We have a lot to gain, experience. We became a better team,” Belen added.

But now comes the harder part: How do you turn those lessons into actual progress?

A promising sign is that Canino is already looking five years ahead, hoping for a quarterfinal breakthrough, and Belen is saying the same thing — she wants to be back and finish higher.

So yes, Alas Pilipinas Women finish ninth. But the ninth-place finish needs context. It was the best they could do after the medal run ended.

They came to Nagoya wanting a medal. They left with ninth place but a clearer idea of how to get closer to one.