Stepping Into the Int'l Arena: The Challenge for PHI

Stepping Into the Int'l Arena: The Challenge for PHI

May 27, 2015 9:06 AM

Note: This will mainly focus on Senior Womens events in the Asian perspective (there are other continental events like European Clubs/Champs / Pan-Am League etc. which we won't talk about since we want to focus on PH POV).

We will try to illustrate and explain the different international volleyball competitions. Now that the Philippines is getting its foot back into the international scene, maybe it’s good that we look at the big picture and draw out some plan on how to climb our way to the top (and stay there).

You think UAAP+PSL(+U23+AVC+SEAG) is too much? Wait 'til you realize the magnitude and scope of international volleyball. The best way to make a splash back into the international scene is to join as many competitions as we can. Why? Because joining the different competitions allow us to accumulate points for rankings (more on that below). More importantly, if we want to improve, we have to get as much experience as possible.

This is the basic outline of the different international competitions that the Philippines will look into (there are other events but we focused on the major ones):

erratum: AVC Seniors - no points for 2017 edition!

Perennial competitors like Japan, China, Thailand, and Korea have been sending athletes to these competitions on a regular basis. Some countries may decide to skip some events but that is to prepare for other (more important) leagues, but mostly they send various teams to deal with all the competitions (Srs Team A to WGP and Srs Team B to another event) or most of the time, they go back-to-back (e.g. after their 3rd place finish in this year's AVC, Thailand's team will head straight to Singapore for the SEA Games, and also look at how Japan has distributed their volleyball pool into the different international competitions). These countries know the value of each league and its corresponding points in the world rankings (*tactics*). Moreover, these countries can host big events not only continental but also international. If you notice, Japan hosts main FIVB events almost every year. This is not only beneficial to their relationship with the FIVB but hosting an event automatically gives them a slot in the competition. (e.g. FIVB World Grand Prix has different legs, but if you host the Final Leg, you're already in the final 6. Coincidentally, this is Japan's highest rank in Grand Prix. See, you can achieve more if you host more). That is why the PHI hosting of the AVC U23 Women's was a big deal for the LVPI -- it cemented the idea that the Philippines was indeed determined to get back into the international volleyball scene.

Continental Leagues

AVC Seniors Championships has the biggest weight in terms of points (and importance) in Asia -- this is where FIVB determines the top seeds in Asia+Oceania. It is also the basis for qualifications for most of the international (intercontinental) events that FIVB organizes. For example, the top two teams for this year's AVC tourney will qualify for the 2015 FIVB World Cup, which in turn is a direct qualification tournament for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Other competitions in Asia include the annual AVC Club Championships, where we joined last year bannered by PLDT Home TVolution (as far as we know, the Petron Blaze Spikers will be the representatives of the Philippines this year as they won the 2015 PSL AFC; no points); the Asian Games, deemed as the Asian-equivalent of the Olympics (no points); and the Southeast Asian Games which the country will be participating in 2 weeks (no points).

Big hoopla is being made by the PH government regarding the SEA Games and we understand why: this is the international multi-sport competition where the country will have the highest chance of scoring medals (with only the SEA countries as competition). For volleyball, this is just a regional tournament with no weight for other tournaments -- it's an isolated sui generis event, with no qualifications for world tournaments (basketball has SEABA for FIBA, football has AFC for FIFA etc). We disagree to some extent with the decision of prioritizing the SEA Games volleyball tourney over the AVC Seniors championships because they don't have any bearing on the world rankings or even qualifications for other international leagues that help us with our chances in the Olympics. However, we understand that the Philippine national volleyball team is just (re)starting, and joining as many competitions as we can would help gain experience and confidence to tackle other competitions. We just hoped they gave the same weight or importance to AVC as well, that's all :)

ETA 2017/07/18: 2 years later, looks like we are looking at AVC Srs and SEA Games with the same weight since we will be joining both tourneys with THE SAME TEAM (YEY)! PROBLEM IS... (to be continued below).

International Tournaments

Aside from Olympics, which most of us think is the highest stage for volleyball (and other sports), there are other competitions with the same amount of importance, especially during non-Olympic years. The biggest of them is the FIVB World Championships held every four years. United States, the champion in last year's 2014 WCH, gained 100 points, giving them back the top spot in the world rankings with 345 points (Brazil in rank #2; they usually interchange). China placed second in the event, bumping them up to 3rd in the world rankings, stepping ahead of Japan, the previous world number 3.

World ranks as of October 2014 are here. The Philippines is currently at rank #63 (along with four other countries, like Hong Kong and Greece), with just 9 points. Ranks are important because they determine seedings in the international tourneys. As we discussed before, FIVB/AVC usually uses the serpentine system in determining pools for the various competitions.

As of this May 2015, we believe that PHI still has 9 points, because we finished 12th in the AVC this year (same as last 2013, which gives us 3 points) and the WCH qualifications last year gave us 6 points. We have not qualified for other tournaments for us to gain more points. Note that points are cumulative but they expire - this means the team is only as good as their last performance.

ETA 2017/07/18: as of July 2017, we are down to 6 points to rank #79, but come 2018, it will get worse because... (to be continued below).

Other FIVB events are the following:

• FIVB World Cup (WC), an event held every four years, which is a competition between the top countries per continent, determined by the respective continental championships (in our case, its the AVC Seniors Championships). This is an international qualification tournament for the Olympics. It is always held in Japan (therefore, Japan is always qualified for the competition as they are the hosts).
• FIVB World Grand Prix (WGP), the main annual FIVB event, which takes around 5 weeks to finish and rotates cities/countries.
• FIVB World Grand Champions Cup (WGCC), another quadrennial event that is staged a year after the Olympics. Interestingly, this FIVB event bears no points for the participants -- it is staged so that there will be no year without an FIVB international tournament. As with the WC, WGCC is always held in Japan.
• FIVB Club World Championships (CWC), the international competition for the various continental club champions. Qualifications for this include topping the AVC Club Championships. There are no points granted for this.

Olympic Games

It is never easy to qualify for the Olympics. There are Olympic qualifiers all over the world and to be able to play in that stage is already a once-in-a-lifetime achievement (note however that most volleyball Olympians were able to play in more than one Olympics; that's how hard it is to enter the top ranks of volleyball). Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 are the next Olympics which volleyball fans consider as two of the better Olympics hosts for the sport, as both Brazil and Japan are very big in volleyball. The Olympics is considered the culmination of all the efforts in joining international tourneys -- you join them because you want to end up playing in the Olympics.

How do we get there?

We can start by sending athletes to various events but it is also important to be proactive and host. Basically, we just need to get off our butts and participate, as much as possible.

However, participation is dependent upon the availability of the participants -- top caliber countries know the international schedule very well. In fact, they schedule around it: the Volleyball Thailand League is held every November to March, while Japan's V.Premiere League starts around the last quarter of the year and finishes around April, and Korea's V-League is also around the same time. If you notice in the timeline above, these are scheduled before/after the main international tourneys. In our case, PSL and SVL should also be scheduled around these, and more importantly they shouldn't overlap. We know that our players want to play for the country and they are being hindered by schedule mishaps; we hope this would end.

It would be a very very very long road for the Philippines. However, as with all things, we do what we can -- the Philippines has to do its best to continue the momentum that we had in U23. After all, if we want to go back to the top, we have to start somewhere. And this is the right time -- now.

The next big thing that the Philippines should target would be the 2018 FIVB World Championships, because: 1) qualifications for this are not dependent on rankings-- they have their own qualification events/system, and 2) they have the biggest points distributions even in qualifying tournaments. This will also expose us to the playing styles of the other countries in the world, and furthermore, if the Olympics is what we are after, we can pattern progress to WCH, which should be pretty much the same. We hope that PHI would try to create the step towards this.

ETA 2017/07/18: ... the Philippines has decided not to participate in the 2018 World Championship Qualifiers (the Asian qualifiers will be in September 2017). Because of this, the existing 6 points in world rankings of the Philippines will be down to 0 pts next year due to non-participation, further sliding down our ranking from #79 to #115 (dead last). No words can describe how disappointed and frustrated we are. 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢

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2015 AVC U23 - Philippines

Lineup

PHILIPPINES
1	L	Agno	Christine
2	C	Valdez	Alyssa
3		Santiago	Alyja
5		Soltones	Gretchel
6		Sato	Risa
8		De Jesus	Jorella
9		Laure	Ennajie
12		Morado	Julia
14		De Leon	Beatriz
15		Maraguinot	Jhoana
17		Pablo	Myla
18		Meneses	Marivic

Head Coach: Roger Gorayeb
Asst Coach: Anusorn Bundit

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Tournament Results

• Iran def. the Philippines in four sets: 25-22, 25-22, 19-25, 25-20
  • Videos: Set1, Set2, Set3, Set4
  • Floor defense has been very shaky all throughout the game for the Philippines, but they were able to stave off nerves and made 50 attacks vs Iran’s 41. However, errors were what lead to the game’s result, 40 big ones vs Iran’s 27. Errors are usually forgivable as long as the team can make up for it in own-effort offense, but the Philippines’ error weight (error to point contribution ratio) is very high at 64.5% vs Iran’s 50%.

• The Philippines def. Kazakhstan in straight sets: 25-19, 25-11, 28-26
  • Videos: Set1, Set2, Set3
  • The Philippines has greatly minimized their errors, from 10 errors/set in the previous game down to just 5 errors/set this game, bring their error weight to just 25.9%. Reception still a bit shaky but they were able to pull through with better transition defense from Tin Agno and Gretchel Soltones. Kazakhstan's offense is centered on Yana Yagodina, with a 47.0% attack percentage (compared to Valdez's 34.0% this game), but the other players were not able to contribute significantly, which greatly affected the game of the team.

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1st Asian Women's Under-23 Volleyball Championships

This is the first edition of the Asian Volleyball Championships - Under 23 Women's Division. It is held from 1 to 9 May 2015 at the Philippine Sports Complex (PSC) Arena, also known as Ultra (map). Schedule of play can be seen here. The top 2 teams to finish this tournament will qualify for the FIVB U23 World Championships in Turkey this August.

There are 12 qualifying teams, rounded up in 4 pools. Each team in one pool will play each other, and the top 2 teams per pool will advance to a classification round to determine the opponents for the quarterfinals. Tournament progress is illustrated below. You can also click on the links below for each country's page.

Pool A	Pool B	Pool C	Pool D
Iran	China	Japan	Korea
Kazakhstan	India	Maldives	Thailand
Philippines	Macau	Chinese Taipei	Uzbekistan

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Tournament Results

4 May 2015

• Kazakhstan def. Maldives in straight sets: 25-10, 25-4, 25-8
  • Top Scorers: KAZ 11-Rostovchshikova with 9 points, MDV 10-Majidha with 6 points (stats)
  • Kazakhstan easily takes a win in this one, overpowering Maldives in all skills. Maldives's point contribution only at 13 points for the whole game, the rest of their points came from Kazakhstan's errors.
• Chinese Taipei def. Iran in straight sets: 25-17, 25-21, 25-17
  • Top Scorers: TPE 2-Chang with 14 points, IRI 9-Roosta with 11 points (stats)
  • Chinese Taipei's power and speed too much to handle for Iran's defenses, with Iran registering 22 excellent digs vs TPE's 30. Defensive lapse for Iran resulted to predictable sets (15 vs TPE's 21) and therefore fewer spikes (26 vs TPE's 37)
• China def. Korea in 5 thrilling sets: 24-26, 23-25, 25-21, 25-21, 15-8
  • Top Scorers: CHN 11-Liu with 37 points, KOR 1-Lee with 26 points (stats)
  • It was surprising to see China down by the first 2 sets in this match, caused by Korea's excellent service game that rattled the China backrow defense. However, China was able to recover in the 3rd and 4th set and decidedly takes the 5th set backed by excellent offense from Liu Yanhan, who's 37 points comprised of 34 attacks (with a 53.1% attack percentage) and 3 blocks. Better service reception for China resulted to setter Chen Xintong to create 47 excellent sets for the match, bringing team offensive efficiency to 66.67%.
• Japan def. the Philippines in straight sets: 25-12, 25-18, 25-15
  • Top Scorers: JPN 5-Yamauchi with 9 points, PHI 2-Valdez with 15 points (stats)
  • This was a systematic and clean win for Japan, with almost all players scoring (except for Miku Namba and the libero Manami Kojima), and no one scoring in double digits, showing setting prowess for Mika Shibata. The Philippines wasn't able to hold their fort on the excellent service game of Japan (which we detailed in our preview for the match, read it here), which meant predictable plays, but setter Jia Morado still out-setting Mika Shibata 16-13. Errors up from 5 per set last match to 9 per set this match.
• Thailand def. India in straight sets: 25-20, 25-21, 25-21
  • Top Scorers: THA 18-Ajcharaporn with 15 points, IND 5-Poorinma with 17 points (stats)
  • These two teams are toe-to-toe in the offensive department, however it was the excellent setting of Pornpun Guedpard that separated Thailand, with 30 excellent sets vs Ruksana's 16. India's powerful attacks were handled by Thailand, although a bit shaky, but it was India's errors that took away that offensive advantage, India error weight at 51.1% vs THA's 29.4%.

3 May 2015

• Chinese Taipei def. Maldives in straight sets: 25-8, 25-8, 25-4
  • Top Scorers: TPE 4-Huang with 14 points, MDV 10-Majidha with 3 points (stats)
    • Videos: no uploads yet
  • Chinese Taipei easily and efficiently defeats Maldives in straight sets fashion. The game lasted just 57 minutes. Maldives only scored 20 points in the game, with 5 of them coming from their point contributions on attacks, and 15 of them from TPE's errors.
• Iran def. Kazakhstan in 5 sets: 25-20, 18-25, 25-19, 14-25, 15-13
  • Top Scorers: IRI 5-Chamlanian with 18 points, KAZ 17-Maratova with 20 points (stats)
    • Videos: no uploads yet
  • Iran's attack points take a small advantage to Kazakhstan, 63 to 57, but their offensive efficiency is greater at 68.3% vs KAZ's 50.8%, meaning their combinations and plays are tricking the KAZ's defense and gets attack points from in-system plays 68.3% of the time. Despite Iran committing more errors, 34 vs 24, they were the ones who got the crucial points under pressure, which spelled out the difference between the two teams.
• China def. Macau in straight sets: 25-12, 25-13, 25-11
  • Top Scorers: CHN 10-Xu with 10 points, MAC 6-Law with 5 points (stats)
    • Videos: no uploads yet
  • China quickly takes care of Macau and ends the match in just an hour. Macau's paltry defense can't keep up with the firepower of China's offense, registering only single digits in the non-scoring skills (digs, sets, service reception). China has a 56.0% attack percentage for this match, compared to Macau's 23.7%. All fielded in players of China scored.
• Thailand def. Korea in 5 sets: 25-18, 25-17, 22-25, 20-25, 15-11
  • Top Scorers: THA 19-Ajcharaporn with 19 points, KOR 1-Lee with 21 points (stats)
    • Videos: no uploads yet
  • Despite being down 57-66 in attacks, Thailand was able to pull through with a 5-set win over Korea on 2 things: blocks and forcing opponent errors. The huge disparity in the blocking department has won it for Thailand; even the block attempts (102 vs 69) are almost double that of the opponent. Blocking is an essential point in the defense pattern of the team - placing of the defense in the back court is crucial for keeping the ball in play. This lapse in defense for Korea can be thought to be a reason why their errors piled up, 31 errors vs Thailand's 17.

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2 May 2015

• Korea def. Uzbekistan in straight sets: 25-17, 25-8, 25-7
  • Top Scorers: KOR 1-Lee with 18 points, UZB 8-Allamova with 6 points (stats)
  • Uzbekistan's lack of defensive specialist in their lineup now hurting their cause, with a very weak 3 excellent digs for the whole game, compared to Korea's 27. Because of their lapse in defense, their offense suffered greatly, churning only 14 attack points compared to Korea's 44.
• The Philippines def. Kazakhstan in straight sets: 25-19, 25-11, 28-26
  • Top Scorers: PHI 2-Valdez with 19 points, KAZ 13-Yagodina with 18 points (stats)
    • Videos: Set1, Set2, Set3
  • The Philippines has greatly minimized their errors, from 10 errors/set in the previous game down to just 5 errors/set this game, bring their error weight to just 25.9%. Reception still a bit shaky but they were able to pull through with better transition defense from Tin Agno and Gretchel Soltones. Kazakhstan's offense is centered on Yana Yagodina, with a 47.0% attack percentage (compared to Valdez's 34.0% this game), but the other players were not able to contribute significantly, which greatly affected the game of the team.
• China def. India in straight sets: 25-9, 25-13, 25-17
  • Top Scorers: CHN 10-Zheng with 13 points, IND 10-Nirmala with 10 points (stats)
    • Videos: Set1, Set2, Set3
  • China clearly overpowering India with its trio of height, pace, and power. Excellent defense on China's side translated to offensive efficiency of 83.3% (% of attacks coming from in-system plays). China was also able to minimize their errors to just 6 compared to India's 18. India was very slow to move and lacked conviction in the game, causing them to fall behind China in all skills.
• Japan def. Chinese Taipei in four sets: 24-26, 26-24, 25-23, 25-10
  • Top Scorers: JPN 1-Muranaga with 18 points, TPE 16-Chen with 11 points (stats)
    • Videos: Set1, Set2, Set3, Set4
  • Both teams playing very fast and very close, however offensively Japan came out on top, with 53 attack points vs TPE's 41, backed by captain Nao Muranaga's 16 points. Japan has also made it difficult for TPE's attackers to put away the ball, with Japan making 44 excellent digs compared to TPE's 29.

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1 May 2015

• India def. Macau in straight sets: 25-10, 25-14, 25-19
  • Top scorers: IND 10-Nirmala with 17 points, MAC 6-Law with 6 points (stats)
  • India leading in all skills, except excellent receptions, which Macau leads 16-8. India's attack percentage only at 37.4%, but still enough to overpower Macau's 17.4%.
• Thailand def. Uzbekistan in straight sets: 25-14, 25-10, 25-13
  • Top scorers: THA 18-Ajcharaporn with 18 points, UZB 8-Allamova with 8 points (stats)
  • • Video: Set1, Set2, Set3
  • Thailand's steady pace in play gave way to a 48.9% offensive efficiency (meaning 48.9% of their attacks come from excellent/in-system plays), compared to Uzbekistan's 27.3%. No libero is lined-up for Uzbekistan, resulting to a very weak floor defense.
• Iran def. the Philippines in four sets: 25-22, 25-22, 19-25, 25-20
  • Top scorers: IRI 8-Saberi with 16 points, PHI 2-Valdez with 31 points (stats)
  • • Videos: Set1, Set2, Set3, Set4
  • Floor defense has been very shaky all throughout the game for the Philippines, but they were able to stave off nerves and made 50 attacks vs Iran's 41. However, errors were what lead to the game's result, 40 big ones vs Iran's 27. Errors are usually forgivable as long as the team can make up for it in own-effort offense, but the Philippines' error weight (error to point contribution ratio) is very high at 64.5% vs Iran's 50%.
• Japan def. Maldives in straight sets: 25-4, 25-11, 25-3
  • Top scorers: JPN 11-Namba with 13 points, MDV 10-Majidha with 3 points (stats)
  • • Videos: Set1, Set2, Set3
  • Most lopsided game of the day, with Japan able to mount a 21-0 score in the 3rd set. Japan has made 17 aces in 3 sets only, while Nanaka Sakamoto got a 100% attack percentage (8 out of 8). Maldives' point contribution is only at 7 pts, while the rest of the 18 points that they scored came from Japan's 11 errors.

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