Alas Pilipinas Women rallied twice from the brink, but couldn’t finish the job. Kazakhstan escaped with a gritty 29-27, 24-26, 23-25, 19-25 win on Thursday, Sept. 17, at Okazaki Sogo Park.

The result drops Alas Pilipinas into the classification round for 9th to 15th place at the 20th Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026. It also ends any shot at matching the team’s 8th-place finish from the 2018 Jakarta Games.

Canino’s Career Game Goes to Waste

Angel Canino turned in her best game of the tournament, exploding for 24 points against Kazakhstan. That nearly doubled her 14-point output from the team’s opening-day sweep loss to China.

Alyssa Solomon backed her up with 20 points of her own, standing tall at 6-foot-4 all match long. The pair powered a furious rally in the opening set, erasing a 14-18 deficit to steal it, 29-27.

Kazakhstan had an answer ready, though. Outside hitter Tatyana Nikitina anchored a balanced attack that snuffed out the Filipinas’ momentum before it could carry into the next frame.

Two Near-Misses, One Cruel Ending

Alas fell behind again in the second set, yet somehow tied it at 24-all. The team couldn’t find the finishing blow, dropping the frame, 24-26, in heartbreaking fashion.

The third set brought more of the same script. Alas knotted the score twice, the last time at 23-all, before Nikitina’s brilliance tipped it Kazakhstan’s way, 23-25.

By the fourth set, Kazakhstan leaned fully on its height advantage. The Kazakhs built an early cushion and cruised home, 25-19, to close out the match.

Nikitina finished with a match-high 19 points, and three of her teammates joined her in double figures. For Alas Pilipinas, tying the score twice simply wasn’t enough to survive Nagoya.