Sisi Rondina and Bernadeth Pons in action in the Volleyball World 2025 Beach Pro Tour Challenge, October 16, 2025 at the Nuvali Sands Court by Ayala Land in Santa Rosa, Laguna. Handout/PNVF
MANILA -- The Philippine national beach volleyball teams suffered setbacks in the main draw of the Volleyball World 2025 Beach Pro Tour Challenge, Thursday at the Nuvali Sands Court by Ayala Land in Santa Rosa, Laguna.
The result put the Alas Pilipinas pairs in must-win situations when the competition resumes.
First to fall when the sun shone brightly the whole day were James Buytrago and Ran Abdilla to a taller Australian duo of D'Artagnan Potts and Jack Pearse, 21-14, 21-18, in a Pool H morning session.
In the afternoon, Kly Orillaneda and Gen Eslapor lost to Finland's Anniina Parkkinin and Vilhelmiina Prihti, 11-21, 15-21, in Pool H and Sonny Villapando and Dij Rodriguez bowed to New Zealand's Shaunna Polley and Olivia MacDonald, 19-21, 14-21, in Pool D.
The veteran pair of Sisi Rondina and Bernadeth Pons then yielded to world-ranked Thainara Mylena Feitosa de Oliveira and Talita Simonetti of Brazil, 17-21, 16-21, in Pool G play.
READ: Rondina, Pons lead Alas bid in main draw of Nuvali beach volleyball tilt
The Alas pairs have to win the second of their main draw matches—and get the better end of possible tiebreaks—to advance further in the tournament.
"This is a first time for us in the Challenge, and we learned a lot of new things, but we're not out yet," Rondina said. "We're just grateful that we played them—they've been playing the sport for the longest time."
Rondina and Pons are ranked No. 137 in the world while Oliveira and Simonetti are one of seven world-ranked Brazilian pairs at No. 72.
"We played against a great Brazilian team that can adjust in any situation and they changed the complexion of the game and we couldn't," Brazilian coach Joao "Kioday" Luciano Simao Barbosa said. "We must learn from this."
Up next for Rondina and Pons on Friday are Slovenia's Ziva Javornik and Tajda Lovsin, who are No. 78 in the world but fell victims to the Alas aces in the Futures tournament in Budapest only last month, 16-21, 21-15, 15-9.
"We're hoping we play them again," Kioday said.
Villapando and Rodriguez take on Japan's Sakura Ito and Mayu Sawame and Eslapor and Orillaneda battle the US's Teegan Van Gunst and Piper Ferch on Friday.
Buytrago and Abdilla fought for survival against Americans Tim Brewster and Ryan Lerna on Thursday evening.