Alas Pilipinas ace Sisi Rondina says no one in the team expected this outcome as the squad had this DIFFICULT REASON

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Alas Pilipinas conquers Australia to cop bronze in AVC Challenge Cup

Alas Pilipinas in action against Australia in the bronze medal match of the 2024 AVC Challenge Cup at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum on May 29, 2024. Photo by Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News

MANILA (UPDATED) — Alas Pilipinas conquered Australia in straight sets, 25-23, 25-15, 25-7, to cop a historic bronze medal in the 2024 AVC Challenge Cup on Wednesday at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.

This triumph marked the Philippines’ first medal in an Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC)-sanctioned tournament in 63 years.

They settled for a battle for third after falling to Kazakhstan in straight sets on Tuesday, 23-25, 21-25, 14-25, despite entering the semifinal round on a high as they swept Pool A action.

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The taller Volleyroos failed to exact revenge against the home team after absorbing a defeat from the Jia de Guzman-captained squad in the preliminary round.

A balanced offense from Angel Canino (14 points), Sisi Rondina (13 points), Thea Gagate (10 points), and Eya Laure (10 points) helped the Philippines prevail once more over Australia, finishing the knockout battle in only one hour, 15 minutes.

That firepower was enabled by team captain De Guzman, who took home Best Player of the Game honors.

The home squad won overwhelmingly in the attacking department — 44 in total for Alas, while Australia only had 24; the visitors also gave 20 points in forms of errors to the Philippines, which was a key scoring factor for De Guzman and company.

For grateful head coach Jorge de Brito, Alas deserves to win.

“Really, I’m happy and I’m grateful. I have no words to express how happy I am and also, not for myself only, I told these guys in the beginning, they deserve a lot. They really deserve it,” the Alas mentor said after the game.

“They fight every single day, since they are really young to make history here, and now history has been made because of them, because they trusted themselves today, they came. I’m happy because of that,” he went on.

“I’m happy because it was here that we got a medal, here, inside our place, our home, our venue, in front of everyone. So I’m really happy that we get to celebrate with everyone.”

This was also the country’s first podium finish since 2019, the last being in the second leg of the ASEAN Grand Prix or SEA V.League.

However, the Philippines has yet to win a championship in international volleyball competitions in 31 years.

Our last gold medal was at the 1993 Southeast Asian Games in Singapore.