AVC WOMEN'S SENIOR VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP : JAPAN WINS GOLD, DAWN MACANDILI NAMED 2ND BEST LIBERO

Japan was named the champion of the 2017 AVC Women's Senior Volleyball Championship after their come from behind victory over Thailand. The Japanese overcame a 2 set lead of the Thais and win the last 3 sets en route to a thrilling 5 set victory: 26-28, 20-25, 25-16, 25-16 and 15-7.

Korea won the bronze after beating East Asian rival China in an earlier game. The Philippines finished in eight place after bowing to Kazakhstan in a 5-set thriller as well.

The final standings are as follows:

2017 Asian Senior Women's Volleyball Championship final standings

🏐 #AVCWomensSCH pic.twitter.com/c6PRSWTJl7

— VolleyMetricsPH (@VolleyMetricsPH) August 17, 2017

Individual awards were also given out. And for the surprise of everyone, a 2nd best libero award was given out and it went to Philippines' Ms Everywhere Dawn Macandili. Here is the list of individual awardees:

#AVCWomensSCH individual awards @spinph pic.twitter.com/pp1dlcqqDk

— Mei-Lin Lozada (@meilinspin) August 17, 2017

Congratulations to all winners! To the Philippine girls, let's now win that bronze in the SEA Games!

AVC WOMEN'S SENIOR VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP : PHILIPPINES BEATS VIETNAM IN 4 SETS

In their last game in the second round of the AVC Women's Senior Volleyball Championship, the hosts Philippines just beat one of the Southeast Asian greats Vietnam in a 4 set thriller at the Alonte Sports Arena in Binan, Laguna.

The Philippines has to come from behind to win the first two sets, 27-25 and 26-24. The third set was handily won by Vietnam, building a commanding lead early in the set, which ended at 17-25. The fourth set was not even a close one. The Philippines lead almost the whole set, building as much as a 6 point lead. In the end, a combination play for Alyssa Valdez ended the match. Here is the match point of Valdez as posted in the ABS-CBN Sports Twitter page:

.@kimfajardo9 to @AlyssaValdez2 FOR THE WIN! #AVCWomensSCH pic.twitter.com/o0sgVIzDal

— ABS-CBN Sports (@abscbnsports) August 14, 2017

Valdez top scored the Philippines with 20 points and Jaja Santiago added 19 markers. It is also good to note that we also had superb floor defense from Dawn Macandili and blocks from Aby Marano.

If this is a good gauge for the upcoming Southeast Asian Games, we really have a good chance in getting a podium finish this year after 12 years since we last won the bronze from the regional meet when we last hosted the games in 2005.

The Philippines will next meet another Southeast Asian volleyball giant Thailand in the quarterfinals tomorrow night.

Big congratulations to the Philippine girls!

TEAM PILIPINAS: 3 GREAT WINS FOR A GREAT SPORTS NIGHT

Good things indeed come in threes.

Filipino sports fans was in for a treat tonight - with not one, not two but three great wins tonight from 3 different Philippine teams in 3 different sports.

The first win was scored by the Philippine National Women's Volleyball team when they sweep their first group match versus Hong Kong in the AVC Senior Women's Volleyball Championship at the Alonte Sports Arena in Binan, Laguna. The Filipinas had a tentative start but never looked back once they got the momentum. They beat the HK ladies via a 25-21, 25-16, 25-17 tally.

FINAL: PHI starts strong, sweeps HK, 25-21, 25-16, 25-17.

Catch #AVCWomensSCH: Philippines🇵🇭 vs Hong Kong🇭🇰 NOW AIRING on S+A! pic.twitter.com/8mJgoeGIuF

— ABS-CBN Sports (@abscbnsports) August 9, 2017

The team was led by Alyssa Valdez with 14 points and Jaja Santiago with 13 points. The next assignment of the girls will be Kazakhstan on Friday.

The next win was from Gilas Pilipinas who also opened their campaign in the 2017 FIBA Asia Cup in Beirut, Lebanon. In their first group stage match, they were able to get an upset win over defending champion China, 96-87.

The Philippines 🇵🇭 fight off a big comeback from China 🇨🇳 to open their #FIBAAsiaCup2017 campaign

📊 https://t.co/zbXwbsAnpH pic.twitter.com/t3GUKM644w

— FIBA (@FIBA) August 9, 2017

Gilas led most of the game, with China almost pulling off their come from behind surge in the fourth quarter, even getting the lead in the last quarter. But Gilas was able to hold on and was able to clinch the win. Terrence Romeo topscorred with 26 points, Japeth Aguilar has 5 blocked shots and Gabe Norwood coming up with 3 steals and 3 blocks. Here are the highlights of the game from FIBA's official YouTube channel:

Next game will be against WABA dark horse Iraq on Friday night.

To cap off this streak, PFL's Ceres Negros FC was declared as the ASEAN Zone Champion at the 2017 AFC Cup in front of their home crowd in Bacolod City.  Ceres Negros won over Home United FC at Bacolod with a score of 2-0 and a 3-2 win on aggregate. OJ Porteria started with an early goal at 2' time. The second goal was from a penalty kick from Manny Ott.

👑 Congratulations to the #AFCCup2017 ASEAN Zone champions @CeresNegrosFC! pic.twitter.com/HmP46npXMD

— AFC Cup (@AFCCup) August 9, 2017

This is the farthest a Filipino team got to since the start of the tournament. They will face FC Istikol on August 22.

Congrats to all the Filipino atheletes! #LabanPilipinas

AVC SENIOR WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP : MATCH AND TELECST SCHEDULE

The Philippine National Women's Volleyball Team will wrap up its preparation for the 2017 Southeast Asian Games by participating in the 2017 AVC Senior Women's Volleyball Championship. The tournament will be held here in the Philippines, at the Alonte Sports Arena in Binan, Laguna and Muntinlupa Sports Complex on August 9 to 17, 2017.

The Philippines is in Group A together with Hong Kong and Kazakhstan. Pool B is composed of powerhouses China, Japan and Australia; while Group C is formed by South Korea, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Lastly, Thailand, Chinese Taipei, Iran and Maldives is pooled in Group D.

The Philippine team is formed by the following athletes which is still fresh from their 17 day training camp in Japan and is coached by Francis Vicente:

Kim Fajardo
Jaja Santiago
Mika Reyes
Jovelyn Gonzaga
Alyssa Valdez
Denden Lazaro
Rhea Dimaculangan
Mika Ortiz
Gen Casugod
Aby Marano
Aiza Maizo-Pontillas
Ces Molina
Kim Dy
Dawn Macandali

Here is the tournament schedule:

Telecast schedule for the group stage to be shown at ABS-CBN Sports + Action is as follows:

August 9 - 12:30pm (Live) - Chinese Taipei vs Iran
August 9 - 6:30pm (Delayed) - Opening Ceremonies / Hong Kong vs Philippines
August 9 - 11:30pm (Delayed) - Thailand vs Maldives
August 10 - 12:30pm (Live) - China vs Japan
August 10 - 6:30pm (Delayed) - Kazakhstan vs Hong Kong
August 10 - 8:30pm (Delayed) - Thailand vs Iran
August 11 - 6:30pm (Delayed) - Philippines vs Kazakhstan
August 11 - 8:30pm (Delayed) - Thailand vs Chinese Taipei

Hope everyone supports the team. Good Luck girls!