Alas Pilipinas pairs in must-win situation in Nuvali beach volley worlds

c/o PNVF

FOUR Alas Pilipinas pairs fell short at the start of the main draw action to drop to must-win situations in the Volleyball World 2025 Beach Pro Tour Challenge on Thursday at the Nuvali Sands Court by Ayala Land in Santa Rosa, Laguna.

First to fall when the sun shone brightly the whole day were James Buytrago and Ran Abdilla to a taller Australian duo of D’Artagnan Potts and Jack Pearse, 21-14, 21-18, in a Pool H  morning session.

In the afternoon, Kly Orillaneda and Gen Eslapor lost to Finland’s Anniina Parkkinin and Vilhelmiina Prihti, 11-21, 15-21, in Pool H and Sonny Villapando and Dij Rodriguez bowed to New Zealand’s Shaunna Polley and Olivia MacDonald, 19-21, 14-21, in Pool D.

Then the celebrated pair of Sisi Rondina and Bernadeth Pons yielded to world-ranked Thainara Mylena Feitosa de Oliveira and Talita Simonetti of Brazil, 17-21, 16-21, in Pool G play.

All’s not lost for Alas Pilipinas though, but they need to win the second of their main draw matches—and get the better end of possible tiebreaks—to advance further in the tournament hosted by the Philippine National Volleyball Federation headed by Ramon “Tats” Suzara.

“This is a first time for us in the Challenge, and we learned a lot of new things, but we’re not out yet,” Rondina said. “We’re just grateful that we played them—they’ve been playing the sport for the longest time.”

Rondina and Pons are ranked No. 137 in the world while Oliveira and Simonetti are one of seven world-ranked Brazilan pairs at No. 72.

“We played against a great Brazilian team that can adjust in any situation and they changed the complexion of the game and we couldn’t,” Brazilian coach Joao “Kioday” Luciano Simao Barbosa said. “We must learn from this.”

Up next for Rondina and Pons on Friday are Slovenia’s Ziva Javornik and Tajda Lovsin, who are No. 78 in the world  but fell victims to the Alas aces in the Futures tournament in Budapest only last month, 16-21, 21-15, 15-9.

“We’re hoping we them again,” Kioday said.

Villapando and Rodriguez take on Japan’s Sakura Ito and Mayu Sawame and Eslapor and Orillaneda battle the US’s Teegan Van Gunst and Piper Ferch on Friday.

Buytrago and Abdilla fought for survival against Americans Tim Brewster and Ryan Lerna on Thursday evening.