(CNN Philippines) — The Philippines opened its Asian U23 Women’s Volleyball Championship campaign losing in four sets against Iran on Friday (May 1) at the PhilSports Arena.
The efforts of Alyssa Valdez and the rest of the Filipinas fell short as Iran notched its first win of the tournament.
In the opening set of the match, the Philippines could not put Iran away after leading for spells of the match and losing out 22-25.
In the second set, the Filipinas took an early lead but were immediately pegged back by Iran in what was turning out to be a tightly contested affair between the two sides.
With the scores standing at 11-12 in favor of Iran in the second set, Valdez went down after hurting her right wrist on a block attempt but continued to play on.
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The Iranians kept up the pressure and took advantage of errors to push the Philippines enough to drop the second set to a score of 22-25 in favor of the visitors.
The Philippines fought to make up the deficit and raced to a sizable lead in the third set behind solid work from Valdez, Risa Sato, Jorella De Jesus, and Gretchel Soltones.
Julia Morado then ended the set, giving the Filipinas their first set of the competition at 25-19.
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Unable to sustain the momentum that they built, the Filipinas started the fourth set slowly and could not get the errors out of their game, falling behind 10-19.
The Iranians proved too much as they weathered a furious Filipino fight back to take the set and the match at 25-20.
The Philippines were led by the 31 points and six aces of captain Alyssa Valdez, whose effort couldn’t turn the tide.
The Philippines needs a victory against Kazakhstan tomorrow (May 2) at the PhilSports Arena at 2:30 p.m. in order to have a shot to advance to the next round of the competition.
