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Alas Pilipinas at the 2026 AVC Women’s Cup. AVC photo
CANDON, Ilocos Sur (UPDATED) — Alas Pilipinas’ semifinals hopes at the 2026 AVC Women’s Cup have been dashed.
The Nationals bowed out of Final Four contention after a 16-25, 14-25, 10-25 loss to Chinese Taipei in Pool A on Thursday at the Candon City Arena here.
With the result, the Philippines’ consecutive finishes at the podium end, after clinching the bronze in 2024 and securing the silver last year, when the tournament was still branded as AVC Nations Cup.
The home bets are now hoping to conclude as third place in the pool to enter the 5th place match in the classification phase.
READ: AVC: Alas Pilipinas eyes win over Chinese Taipei as race to semis tightens
Alas Pilipinas interim head coach Shaq delos Santos acknowledged that the lack of time to prepare was a “big factor” of the team’s result in general, while keeping his hopes high for the national team program.
“Malaking factor dito is ‘yung preparation namin. And then, siguro talagang kailangan pa ng more time para dito. But we need to accept na ganito talaga ‘yung pwedeng nangyari,” said delos Santos.
“But ‘di kami mawawalan ng hope kasi mas gusto pa naming maging better pa ‘yung volleyball natin.”
READ: Gregorio says PSC’s focus is on Alas Women’s program for FIVB Worlds 2029
No Alas player breached double-digit territory, with ace Alyssa Solomon leading the pack with a six-point output. Ces Molina and Niña Ytang had three points each.
Hsu Wan-Yun led the balanced scoring of Chinese Taipei, tallying 13 points on 13 attacks and an ace.
READ: AVC: Alas Pilipinas squanders 1-set lead, falls to Australia
Chang Yi-Chi added 13 points for the visiting side, while Chen Ciao-En enforced her will on the net, listing six blocks en route to a 12-point total.
The winners, at 4-0, have secured a bus ticket to the semifinals in the tourney presented by the PSC, FIVB, AVC, Volleyball World and Candon City headed by Mayor Eric Singson.
Philippines concludes pool play at 2-3, and will wait for the conclusion of Pool A action on Friday.