The Philippine National Volleyball Federation will be forming a new national team that will see action in international events heading into the 19th Asian Games.
PNVF national team commission chairperson Tonyboy Liao bared that they are set to plot their next move to make sure that the country will get to field its best players in the Asian Games set in Hangzhou from 28 September to 8 October.
“We’re going to sit down and discuss the formation of a new national team that will compete in international events this year,” Liao told Daily Tribune in an interview.
Included in the national team calendar are two legs of the ASEAN Grand Prix in Da Lat, Vietnam and Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Both events will serve as warmup tourneys for the Asian Games, where the Filipinas are looking to bounce back from a dismal 8th-place finish in the previous edition in Jakarta in 2018.
The squad will also participate in the Asian Sr. Women’s Championship in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand opening on 2 September.
This development came at the heels of the Nationals’ seventh-place finish in the Asian Volleyball Confederation Challenge Cup for Women in Gresik, Indonesia over the weekend.
Despite the heartbreaking finish, Liao still lauded the gallant stand of the national team, which had only a week of preparation.
He said the hastily formed crew headed by Brazilian head coach Jorge Souza De Brito and bannered by Aiza Maizo-Pontillas, Faith Nisperos and Shaya Adorador accomplished what they were set to do in the 11-nation field tilt.
“We’re not expecting a podium finish due to the fact that the team formed was very new without even training as a team for a long time. I think if it was the SEA Games team, it could’ve been a podium finish,” Liao said.
“The target was just to finish in the Top 8 which they did. Imagine winning three games and losing three games with two games by four sets.”
The composition of the new national team will be announced soon with stars from the pro ranks expected to banner the roster.
PVL players will be available to train for the tricolor full-time when the Invitational Conference wraps up by the end of July.
