Alas Pilipinas test run

Alas Pilipinas’ campaign at the 2025 VTV Cup did not end with a coveted medal, but it did send a powerful message all the same — one that tells all and sundry the team is no fluke, no flash-in-the-pan experiment, and certainly no pushover on the regional stage. The loss to Chinese Taipei in the bronze medal match — 17-25, 24-26, 22-25 — hurts, no doubt. Then again, the final score tells only part of the story.

It’s easy to zero in on the missed opportunities. A 23-22 lead in the second set that slipped away. A 22-21 edge in the third, followed by a string of costly miscues — mental lapses under pressure, the kind that separate medalists from mere contenders. Still, to focus solely on the failure to claim a podium finish would be to miss the bigger picture. After all, the team isn’t even supposed to be this good yet.

In 2024, the Philippine delegation to this same tournament barely made noise. Represented by National University, the red, white, and blue finished 10^th — replete with resolve, but nonetheless an afterthought. Fast forward a year, and Alas Pilipinas, as a unified and more cohesive national squad, got to push perennial contenders to their limits and found itself close to taking home the hardware.

Yes, the errors at the end of the medal round set-to were painful. Alas Pilipinas’ bright hopes couldn’t convert when it mattered most. All the same, they did battle throughout; they very nearly turned a 0-2 deficit into the start of a momentum builder. That kind of pressure? You can’t fake it. You can’t simulate it. You just have to live through it and grow from it.

Lest we forget, this is only the beginning. The VTV Cup was a test run. The real goals are still to come — namely, the SEA V.League in August and the 33^rd Southeast Asian Games in December. Meanwhile, coach Jorge Souza de Brito and the Philippine Volleyball Federation leadership will need to sharpen the roster in acknowledgement that while the team is already in a good place, it has to be much, much better.

True, Alas Pilipinas returns home empty-handed. Still, it does so with pride. This isn’t the end of a campaign. It’s the start of a reckoning, and the competition should take notice.

Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications, and business development.