Alas Pilipinas Women displayed an improved performance against regional powerhouse Vietnam but still came up short, absorbing a 14-25, 28-30, 22-25 defeat to open their campaign in the second leg of the 2025 Southeast Asia V.League on Friday evening at the Ninh Binh Gymnasium.
Rising stars Shaina Nitura of Adamson and Clarisse Loresco and FEU led the charge for the Nationals, but a sluggish start once again proved costly.
The loss dropped the Philippines to a 0-1 record in the four-team field, which also features defending champion Thailand and Indonesia.
The match echoed their first-leg encounter in Thailand last week, where the Nationals put up a gritty stand but still fell in four sets, 13-25, 21-25, 25-23, 9-25, against the Vietnamese in Nakhon Ratchasima.
The latest setback marked Alas Pilipinas’ fourth straight defeat to Vietnam, a skid that stretches back to the 2025 AVC Nations Cup Final, the 2025 VTV Cup, and the SEA V.League’s opening leg.
After dropping the first set behind nine costly errors and unable to contain the firepower of Tran Thi Thanh Thuy and Nguyen Thi Bich Tuyen, the Nationals responded with their strongest frame of the match in the second.
Down 10-12, Nitura and Loresco combined forces with veterans Vanie Gandler of Cignal and Dell Palomata of PLDT to engineer an 8-2 run, building an 18-14 cushion.
Vietnam, resting Thuy for the set, clawed back to erase the gap, surviving three Filipino set points before a kill from Bich Tuyen and an error from Loresco sealed a heartbreaking 28-30 loss.
The Nationals showed resilience in the third set, rallying from a 7-13 hole to level the score at 19-all, aided by three Vietnamese miscues. Loresco’s offspeed hit tied the frame at 21, but Vietnam’s Hoang Thi Kieu Trinh delivered a clutch spike, followed by consecutive attack errors from Nitura and a backrow hit from Vi Thi Nhu Quynh to complete the straight-sets win for the home side.
Earlier in the day, reigning MVP Pimpichaya Kokram powered Thailand to a dominant 25-16, 25-16, 25-21 victory over Indonesia to kick off the second-leg hostilities.
