Philippine Women's Volleyball Team Lost to Japan Via 3 Straight Sets: Another Setback For Our Team

This game have the same story with that of the Philippine's lost to Iran the other day. Our team once again showed poor floor defense and poor reception. We only showed our open plays and we didn't use quick plays. I saw Suzanne Roces ready to hit a quick mid-attack but Tina Salak didn't give her the ball. They should address those problems or else they'll go back to the Philippines win-less. Japan's Naoko Matsuda on the other hand, who's height is only 158cm showed her great reception for Japan. She's the secret why they have great defense. The only bright side for us was Rachel Ann Daquis. The spikes of Rachel Ann Daquis were the only ones that Matsuda can't receive well. Of all our spikers, I can say that Daquis is one of the most effective. She has the creativity to make her spikes penetrate the blocks of the taller Japanese blockers.

Japan has one the best blockers in the league. They have Yumie Taniguchi. Taniguchi is the oldest player in the league right now, she's already 39 years old. Simple spikes will not pass through her because she's already a veteran. She's been into so many volleyball battles. We can't win against a team like Japan if we'll keep our bad ways. We should step-up in our games.

By the way, I found an interesting information regarding the teams that are participating in the tournament right now. I got them from Asianvolleyball.org.

China and Thailand have joined all the 12 editions. Kazakhstan participated 11 times while Indonesia joined the Championship eight times, the Philippines seven times, Iran fourth times since its first participation in 2008.

To think that it's our 7th time to be in the tournament, we shouldn't be playing like this. We lost to Japan via 3 straight sets, 25-16, 25-18, and 25-13. We should have made the match more interesting. But then again, Japan is a team who won one gold medal back in 2002. We should not belittle them.

The Philippines' next game will be on June 23,2011, Thursday, against China or Thailand. It will be at 4:00 p.m.. We should support our team no matter what happens to them. They're our pride.