Alas girls reach Round of 16 at World Championship
Key Takeaways
- •The Philippines advanced to the Round of 16 of the FIVB Volleyball Girls' U17 World Championship despite losing to Venezuela in five sets, as reaching the decider was sufficient to qualify.
- •Caera Celis scored a team-high 24 points while Xyz Ellen Rayco added 19, with the pair combining for 15 points in the third set to ignite the comeback.
- •The Philippines edged out Mexico for the knockout berth on a superior tiebreak score of 7-6 after both teams finished Pool B with identical 2-3 records.
- •This marks the Philippines' best-ever finish in the U17 World Championship, now in only its second edition.
- •The Filipinas will face South Korea, who swept Pool D with five consecutive victories, in the Round of 16 in Los Andes, Chile.
THE odds are in the Alas Pilipinas girls' favor.
Needing only to reach the fifth and final set to advance to the Round of 16 of the FIVB Volleyball Girls' U17 World Championship, the Filipinas did exactly that after battling the Venezuelans tooth and nail before falling, 25-19, 25-16, 22-25, 19-25, 15-11, on Wednesday in San Felipe, Chile.
The result also assured the Philippines of its best finish in the biennial tournament — now on its second edition — since it did not take part in the inaugural staging in Lima, Peru. The U17 World Championship is part of the FIVB's age-group competition structure aimed at developing the sport's next generation of international talent, making a knockout-stage appearance a meaningful milestone for a program still establishing itself on the global stage.
After dropping the first two sets, Caera Celis and Xyz Ellen Rayco sparked the comeback and combined for 15 points in the third set, which the Nationals captured and used to fuel another surge in the fourth that forced a decider.
Alas ultimately lost the fifth set, but the objective had already been secured.
Celis and Rayco finished with 24 and 19 points, respectively.
The Nationals will head to Los Andes, about 17 kilometers or a 20-minute bus ride from San Felipe, where they will face the favored South Koreans, who swept Pool D with five straight wins. South Korea has long been a competitive force in Asian volleyball across age levels, and their unbeaten pool-stage run underscores the scale of the challenge awaiting the Filipinas in the knockout round.
The Filipinas actually finished tied for fourth in Pool B with the Mexicans, who defeated the Tunisians, 25-19, 25-17, 27-25, on 2-3 records, but the Philippines claimed the ticket to the knockout Round of 16 on the basis of a higher tiebreak score, 7-6.
The five-set loss was also significant because, under the rules, it counts as one point against two points for a win.
"China is clearly on a different level. But against the rest of the pool, I believed we had a chance, if only we had more time to train and gel. Still, they've matured a lot playing matches at this level," Alas coach Edwin Leyva said.
— Joey Villar
