The highly-popular national women’s volleyball team takes centerstage when it faces a dangerous Cambodian squad in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games on Tuesday at the Olympic Complex Indoor Main Hall in Phnom Penh.
Action starts at 8:30 p.m. with the Filipinas marching to battle oozing with confidence following its two-week training in Japan.
Philippine National Volleyball Federation national team commission chief Tonyboy Liao admitted that their expectations are high, confident that the team can finally bring home a medal following a disappointing performance of the men’s squad.
The last time the Filipinas won a medal in the biennial meet was in the 2005 edition in Bacolod City.
Since then, the squad failed to see action for 10 years and only resurfaced when the Larong Volleyball sa Pilipinas, Inc. was formed months before the Singapore SEA Games in 2015.
“We are having high expectations because they had a good training camp in Japan,” Liao told Daily Tribune in an interview.
Coached by Brazilian mentor Jorge Souza de Brito, the squad arrived Saturday without skipper Alyssa Valdez, who flew in earlier to serve as the country’s flag bearer in the opening ceremony last Friday.
Valdez, who is on her fifth straight SEA Games cap since 2015, will be backed by a crack crew in Creamline teammates Tots Carlos, setter Jia Morado-de Guzman, Ced Domingo, Jema Galanza, Michele Gumabo and libero Kya Atienza of Creamline, Akari’s Bang Pineda, Chery Tiggo’s Mylene Paat, Gel Cayuna and Chai Troncoso of Cignal, Dell Palomata of PLDT, and Choco Mucho’s Cherry Nunag and Kat Tolentino.
Cambodia, however, will be a dangerous foe.
Although the host country is not yet a known powerhouse in the region, the Volleyball Federation of Cambodia hired a noted Cuban mentor in Berto Friol Barrios to serve as one of the assistant coaches of Chinese mentor Li Jun, who led the Cambodian men’s team to a historic bronze medal in the Hanoi SEA Games in 2022.
“What the Chinese coach has, the Cuban may not; what the Cuban coach has, the Chinese coach may not have; and what they do not have, our Cambodian coaches may have,” VFC secretary-general Aing Serey Piseth said moments after Friol Barrios inked a one-year contract last year.
“In putting these coaches together, I believe that the gap between our players and those of the region will get smaller quickly.”
Still, Liao is banking on the Nationals’ experience over the Cambodians, who will be playing in the biennial meet for the first time.
“I think, definitely, we have a big advantage because their team is newly formed unless they’re fielding naturalized players,” Liao said.
“But still, the team-to-beat in our group is Vietnam.”
The Filipinas will face Vietnam on Wednesday before closing its campaign in Pool B against Singapore on Thursday.
