MANILA, Philippines —  Alas Pilipinas team captain Jia de Guzman has tempered expectations on their chances against a heavily favored Vietnam and in the FIVB Challenger Cup that came off the wraps at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium yesterday.

But deep inside the soft-spoken and courageous skipper and the rest of Nationals, they all dream of the same big dream – a ticket straight to the Women’s Volleyball Nations League main group next year.

And their quest begins tonight when they square off with the Vietnamese at 6:30 p.m.

The home bet is the underdog versus the Vietnamese side that swept and dominated last month’s AVC Challenge Cup at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum. The Filipinas snatched a historic bronze there.

“Well, alam naman po namin na mas malakas ang kalaban and we know our team is young. All we can ask the girls is to do its best while not putting pressure on the team that much,” said the charismatic Alas team leader.

The team lost power spiker Eya Laure and libero Jen Nierva and were replaced by Creamline’s Jema Galanza and National University’s Bella Belen.

Belen’s teammate, Alyssa Solomon, and Galanza’s fellow Creamline star, Tots Carlos, were enlisted into the pool but will not be able to join due to undisclosed reasons.

“It’s great to have new reinforcements in the pool. Experience-wise, marami ang mako-contribute nila sa team,” said De Guzman of Galanza and Belen.

Intriguingly, Nierva’s last-minute withdrawal left the squad with one legitimate libero in Dawn Catindig.

Cherry Nunag was listed as the team’s second libero although she’s known as a natural middle blocker.

The other members of the team are Faith Nisperos, Fifi Sharma, Vannie Gandler, Julia Coronel, Angel Canino, Dell Palomata, Arah Panique, Thea Gagate and Sisi Rondina.

The trek to that VNL dream is long and arduous though as Alas Pilipinas would need to win all its games against Vietnam, the semis and eventually the finals, assuming it could make it that far, to realize it.

In the opener of the meet, Puerto Rico turned back a feisty Kenya 25-20, 25-19, 27-25, to advance to the semis.

Teenage sensation Grace Mar Lopez Villanueva went on attack mode and fired 19 points including 18 on kills while Diana Reyes scattered 10 hits.

Pamella Adhiambo Owino tried to put up a fight for the Kenyans by unloading a match-best 22 points. most of which came in the third set when they tried

to put up a fight and steal the set before eventually falling short in the end.