MANILA, Philippines — Alas Pilipinas aims to capture its first win and target a ninth-place finish as it enters the classification round of the 2026 Asian Games against Qatar on Sunday at the Okazaki Chuo Sogo Park Gymnasium.
The nationals were eliminated from medal contention following a 0-2 run in Pool B, suffering consecutive setbacks against defending champion China and a towering Kazakhstan team. Although the Philippines put up a fierce fight against Kazakhstan before falling 29-27, 24-26, 23-25, 19-25, closing out tight sets remained a central struggle.
Despite the setback, head coach Taka Minowa remains focused on maximizing the team's remaining campaign.
"It's really sad. I’m really sorry for everyone to make this happen, but we will change our motivation and also the target—which is that we're going to finish 9th. We should win three games in a row. That's what we should do with these Asian Games," he told official broadcaster Cignal.
Star winger Angel Canino provided a strong offensive spark for the squad, pouring in 24 points against Kazakhstan following a 14-point effort against China.
"The experience that we learned today, and the opponent that we fought today was really tough. They’re really tall, and we hope that we learned a lot from it and address our lapses," Canino said. "That’s what we want—to learn. Hopefully, we can get the results that we want."
The Philippines holds a strong opportunity to bounce back against Qatar, which dropped back-to-back lopsided matches in Pool D against Vietnam (3-25, 8-25, 9-25) and South Korea (25-6, 25-6, 25-10).
