Sisi Rondina and Bernadeth Pons missed out on a potential Cinderella run in the Volleyball World Beach Volley Pro Tour Challenge after absorbing a nail-biting 18-21, 24-22, 15-12 round-of-24 loss to Switzerland’s Annique Niederhauser and Menia Bentele on Friday night, October 17, at the Nuvali Sands Court by Ayala Land in Santa Rosa, Laguna.

“It was a sorry loss,” Rondina said. “They [Swiss] didn’t want to give up.”

The Filipinas looked poised to advance to Saturday’s round of 16 — and possibly beyond — after taking control in the extended second set. The Swiss committed costly service and return errors, but Niederhauser and Bentele recovered in the decider to frustrate the local bets in the tournament organized by the Philippine National Volleyball Federation headed by Ramon “Tats” Suzara.

Breakthrough performance for the Philippines

Despite the loss, Rondina and Pons were the last pair standing among the seven Philippine teams—four women’s and three men’s—competing in the event. Their run already marked a milestone: their earlier 21-19, 21-9 win over Slovenia was the first victory by any Philippine team, men’s or women’s, in a Challenge-level tournament.

“We tried our best to close out the match as hard as we could, but it didn’t go that way,” Rondina said. “But we’ll take this loss as a learning experience and we’ll be back stronger especially in the Southeast Asian Games in December.”

Pons added: “We regretted that we couldn’t follow up on our victory in the morning [against Slovenia], but we’re thankful for this wonderful experience in the Challenge level.”

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Other Philippine teams exit early

Kly Orillaneda and Gen Eslapor fell to USA’s Teegan Van Gunst and Piper Ferch, 19-21, 11-21. Meanwhile, Sonny Villapando and Dij Rodriguez squandered a 13-8 lead in the second set and lost to Japan’s Sakura Ito and Mayu Sawame, 18-21, 25-27, to bow out of the tournament, which concludes Sunday.