Dij Rodriguez and Gene Eslapor bombed out of contention following a 7-21, 14-21 loss to Worapeerachayakorn Kongphopsarutawadee and Tarawadee Naraphonlaphat of Thailand in the Round of 16 of the 2022 AVC Senior Women’s Beach Volleyball Championship Thursday in Roi-et, Thailand.
The home bets flaunted their might early before using their length, skills, power and familiarity to book the win that sent them to the quarterfinals.
The Filipinas, for their part, kissed the tournament goodbye after posting a 1-2 record in the elimination round of Pool G.
Their lone win came in their first match over Alisha Stevens and Georgia Johnson of Australia, 21-19, 21-13, before bowing to Akiko Hasegawa and Yurika Sakaguchi of Japan 2, 16-21, 24-22, 12-15, in their second encounter.
Then, they lost to To Wingtung and Wong Manching of Hong Kong 2, 21-16, 18-21, 13-15, to book a quarterfinal duel against the dangerous Thai spikers in the knockout round.
Meanwhile, the other Filipina squad — Sisi Rondina and Bernadeth Pons — are still fighting for survival at press time.
Rondina and Pons, the bronze medalists in the 30th Southeast Asian Games, are campaigning in the Round of 16 against the duo of Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar of Australia 2 for spot in the quarterfinals.
The Rondina-Pons duo defeated Wornatchayakorn Phirachatakrailert and Charanrutwadee Patcharamainaruebhorn of Thailand 3, 21-15, 15-21, 15-7 and Maya Dickson and Katie Sadlier of New Zealand 3, 21-11, 21-8, before losing to Lin Meimei and Xia Xinyi of China 1, 10-21, 11-21, in the eliminations of Group D.
