Nakhon Pathom, Thailand, June 12, 2022 – Philippines tasted first victory in the 14th Asian Women’s U18 Volleyball Championship after seeing off Australia in closely-contested three-setter 25-20, 25-19, 31-29 at Nakhon Pathom Sports Centre Gymnasium on Sunday.
The win allowed the Philippines another chance in this eight-day championship as they will next fight it out with India for the 9th place on Monday, the last day of the topflight championship, as Australia had already completed their campaign in Nakhon Pathom to return with the bottom 11th position.
Fracessca Hermosura chipped in with 12 points for Philippines, while Caitlin Whincup scored a match-high 17 points on the Australia’s losing efforts.
Hoping to save the best for last, Philippines started with some beautiful shots from talented Fracessca and Chelmi Rubin in the first set, while the Aussies’ form was still far from flawless. The Filipinas jumped into the lead with a 3-point clear at 16-13 and stretched it to 21-16, taking advantage of the opponents’ unforced serving and attacking mistakes. As the Philippines grew in confidence and went on their aggression, Australia lost their touch to go down in the opener 20-25.
Conceding one set, Australia began to take control in the second set and keep their composure, with Kayla Stevens carrying out effective spikes. However, the Australia’s fine form was short-lived when Philippines maintained their momentum and fought back hard to surge ahead the pace-setters 16-14 and never looked back from then on to win the set 25-19.
In the third set, Philippines showed tremendous courage and defensive resilience to win some crucial points in the hard-fought set that no one was willing to surrender easily. The on-going battle became more thrilling when leads changed hands for several times, but Philippines fared better on the home stretch to win the close set 31-29 and match.
Despite losing all matches in the championship, Australia won’t return home empty-handed as they had got exposure and gained experience which could be valuable asset for their future success in international competitions.
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