Back to the drawing board for Team Philippines.
The Philippine women’s national volleyball team ended their Southeast Asian (SEA) Games campaign on Sunday with a fourth-place finish, losing the bronze medal match against Indonesia, 25-20, 22-25, 25-22, 25-23.
This is the fourth straight SEA Games meet where the Philippines just finished just outside the podium. It has also been 18 years since the last medal finish in Manila, where the national spikers won bronze.
The Filipina volleybelles have shown their hunger to break that medal drought in the game against Indonesia, keeping the game close all throughout.
In the breakthrough second set until the beginning of the third set, the Filipina athletes looked primed towards triumph—displaying poise and pulling out a comfortable lead in Phnom Penh.
The Indonesians, however, clawed back, then took the lead, and kept the Filipinas at bay to win in four sets.
Fans believe the team could have done better, and they have certainly voiced out their disappointment throughout the tournament, demanding for coaching changes.
Even more importantly, some players, like Jia de Guzman, have also chimed in on how the country’s volleyball program can improve, calling for continuity—taking a page out of the books of other regional powerhouses like Thailand.
Now, as they come home without medals, the volleyball delegation and the national team’s decision-makers will need to regroup and see how they can learn from this campaign.