Alas ends Thai reign to claim historic SEA Games beach volleyball crown

PATTAYA, Thailand – Alas Pilipinas claimed a piece of history as it captured the women’s beach volleyball gold medal in the Southeast Asian Games after dethroning Thailand at the Jomtien Beach here on Friday, December 19.

The Sisi Rondina-Bernadeth Pons duo and Dij Rodriguez-Sunnie Villapando tandem won their respective matches in the best-of-three finale, allowing the Philippines to end the long reign of Thailand, which won all of the eight previous women’s beach volleyball crowns. 

Rondina and Pons set the tone by scoring a 21-17, 21-15 win over Taravadee Naraphornrapat and Worapeerachayakorn Kongphopsarutawadee before Rodriguez and Villapando finished the job with a 21-13, 17-21, 15-6 victory over Tanarattha Udomchavee and Rumpaipruet Numwong. 

“Like I always tell them, as long as we’re consistent, a podium finish will come. We’ve shown consistency and that is why we won the gold,” Rondina said in Filipino. 

While the Philippines reached the women’s beach volleyball final for the first time, getting the gold medal had still looked like a long shot after it absorbed its only loss of the round-robin preliminary from Thailand. 

But the quartet defied expectations and stunned the Thais in their own turf, gifting the Philippines its first SEA Games volleyball gold since it won the women’s indoor volleyball title in 1993. 

“We’d been dreaming of the gold for a long time. Finally, the Lord answered our prayers,” said Rodriguez. 

For Villapando, the golden feat is a result of all the “pain and heartbreak” the team endured in the lead-up to the SEA Games. 

Those hardships toughned up Alas and it showed in the final.

Villapando and Rodriguez were dragged into a deciding set but they got their act together as they raced to a 9-3 lead and got the job done.

“We came out and we executed. We did what we said we were going to do six months ago. I’m so proud of all of us for fighting,” said Villapando. – Rappler.com