Bryan Bagunas. PNVF PHOTO
It took 49 years and two video games, however the Philippine males’s volleyball crew is a winner once more within the Asian Video games (Asiad).
Ensuring their practically half-a-century wait wouldn’t come up empty-handed, the Filipino males swept previous Afghanistan, 25-23, 25-16, 25-12, on Wednesday at Deqing Sports activities Gymnasium in Hangzhou, China.
Simply lower than 24 hours earlier than that, the crew dropped its opening Asiad Pool F match to reigning SEA Video games champion Indonesia, 25-22, 25-23, 25-20. This time, Bryan Bagunas and Steve Rotter ensured the nation would really feel that it belonged within the continental competitors. It was the nation’s first win in Asian Video games males’s volleyball competitors for the reason that classification spherical of the 1974 version in Tehran, Iran.
Bagunas, a member of the historic silver medal crew within the 2019 Southeast Asian Video games, dropped 16 factors on a 14-of-20 attacking clip to go along with a block and an ace as he once more turned part of one other milestone of the game.
Rotter, the Filipino-American reverse spiker, delivered 13 factors to assist Bagunas, the reigning Taiwan’s High Volleyball League Most Helpful Participant.
The Filipinos, with a 1-1 card, technically have an opportunity to make it to the Spherical of 12 however which means having to win in opposition to Japan, the world No. 5 and Volleyball Nations League bronze medalist, on Thursday night.
With the percentages closely in opposition to the Filipinos, the win in opposition to Afghanistan couldn’t have come at a greater time.
Marck Espejo, who simply joined the crew on Sunday coming from his buildup with Korean membership Incheon Air Jumbos, solely performed within the third set however contributed three factors of their dominant 66-minute win.
Gulam Rasool Haidari had eight factors for Afghanistan (0-2, win-loss).
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