Alas Pilipinas’ top pair of James Buytrago and Ran Abdilla held their ground early but ultimately succumbed to the taller Australian duo of D’Artagnan Potts and Jack Pearse, 21-14, 21-18, to bow out of the men’s main draw of the Volleyball World 2025 Beach Pro Tour Challenge on Thursday, October 16, at the Nuvali Sands Court by Ayala Land in Santa Rosa, Laguna.

“We adjusted very well in our strategies to disrupt their plays, but we just couldn’t sustain our game to the end,” said the 26-year-old Buytrago, who played through pain from an injured right index finger. “The pain merely went off during the match maybe because of adrenaline.”

The Filipino pair, who clinched bronze at the 2023 Cambodia Southeast Asian Games, gave the Aussies a late scare at 18-19 before faltering in their Pool H opener. All was not lost, however, as they still had a quarterfinals berth to fight for in an evening match against Americans Tim Brewster and Ryan Lerna.

Aussies stay unbeaten as Pool H heats up

Italy’s Enrico Rossi and Marco Viscovich defeated Brewster and Lerna, 21-12, 22-20, to join Potts and Pearse with unbeaten 1-0 records in Pool H of the week-long competition hosted by the Philippine National Volleyball Federation under Ramon “Tats” Suzara.

“We still have a chance if we win against the USA in our later match. I believe we can bounce back later,” Buytrago said.

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Elsewhere, Indonesia’s Akbar Bintang and Sofyan Rachman Efendi, gold medalists in the 2023 Beach Pro Tour Futures in Wuhan, China, edged Germany’s Philip Huster and Maximilian Just, 23-21, 21-19, in Pool D. Spain’s Alejandro Juerta and Adrian Gavira also scored a 21-19, 21-18 win over Latvia’s Ardis Beritis and Arturs Rinkevics in Pool D, while the USA’s Logan Webber and Hagen Smith outlasted Denmark’s Mads Mollgaard and Nicolai Houmann, 21-17, 18-21, 15-12, in Pool B.