Volleybelles absorb embarrassing 6th loss

The Philippines absorbed its sixth consecutive loss yesterday, bowing to Australia in straight sets, 25-12, 25-18, 25-21, and finishing eighth in the seventh Asian Youth Girls volleyball championship at the Philsports Arena.

The Filipinas won only once in seven games this week, their lone win coming at the expense of lowly Sri Lanka. However, their eighth-place finish among 12 teams is the best for the country in this tournament.

“Although I’m a bit disappointed, I’m still happy that we came out with our best finish since we (first) participated in this event,” said RP team coach Francis Vicente

He blamed their poor finish to the lack of preparation and international exposure.

The only bright spot for the Filipinas in the match came when they seized a 21-17 lead in the third set and appeared headed to extending the match.

But the Aussies easily recovered lost ground and with their power hitting ways won the next eight points to send the Filipinas on their knees.

“We probably just had the extra energy left to pull out the win. Maybe they ran out of gas,” said Australia mentor Adam Maskell, whose charges finished seventh.

Taylor Schulz peppered RP with 14 hits she laced with 11 kills while Eliza Hynes unloaded 10 spikes of her own to seal it.

Talique Clancy, for her part, joined the fray by finishing with five blocks, scoring four aces and pounding in six kills.

Southeast Asian power Thailand, meanwhile, smashed Korea, 25-9, 25-22, 25-20, to book a solid third place.

In other relegation tie games, Chinese Taipei drew strength from Wei Wen Huang and Hsiang Ling Hsiao up front as it slammed Indonesia, 25-14, 25-20, 25-14, to clinch sixth spot.