PH beach volleyball teams wrap up gallant stand in Thailand tilt

Four Philippine beach volleyball teams put up a brave act but still fell short in the recently-concluded Asian Senior Beach Volleyball Championships held at the Bang Tao Beach in Phuket, Thailand.

The 19th-seeded pair of Jude Garcia and Krung Arbasto had the best showing, reaching the quarterfinal round against Iran 2’s Bahman Salemi and Abolhassan Khakizadeh but they fell in three sets, 19-21, 21-13, 10-15, to formally miss a semifinal berth.

The tandem matched the country’s best finish in the competition since the final eight finish of Rhovyl Verayo and Parley Tupaz in 2007 in Songkhla also in Thailand.

Verayo, incidentally, is now calling the shots for the men's team.    

The other men's team of AJ Pareja and James Pecaña, however, didn’t get past the pool play. 

In the women's side, the 16th-seeded duo of Dij Rodriguez and Gen Eslapor lost to Australia 2’s Jasmine Fleming and Stefanie Fejes,18-21, 14-21. Meanwhile, no. 12 Sisi Rondina and Bernadeth Pons bowed to Japan 2’s Akiko Hasegawa and Yurika Sakaguchi, 17-21, 15-21.

Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) president Ramon "Tats" Suzara lauded the teams' performances and stressed the program will only get better.

"I'm very satisfied with the way our beach volleyball players performed in Phuket. We will get better," said Suzara.

—JMB, GMA News