By ADRIAN STEWART CO

The Alas Pilipinas national men’s volleyball team bowed out of title contention in the 2025 AVC Challenge Cup for Men after a 25-19, 23-25, 30-28, 25-20 defeat to Chinese Taipei in Manama, Bahrain on Wednesday night, June 18.

Negrense Leo Ordiales had another good offensive game for Alas Pilipinas men with 15 points.

They suffered their second consecutive defeat in the preliminary round to drop to a 0-2 record.

Marck Espejo spearheaded the offense with 26 points, off 22 attacks and four blocks.

Louie Ramirez and Lloyd Josafat chipped in eight and seven markers, respectively.

With the defeat, Alas Pilipinas men are now relegated to the classification phase, where they will battle either Thailand or Indonesia — both from Pool A — on Friday, June 20.

The national team will then wrap up their campaign with a final match against the third seed of Pool D, which includes South Korea, New Zealand and Vietnam, on Sunday, June 22.

Chang Yusheng powered Chinese Taipei with 24 points on 21 attacks and three blocks.

Wen Yi-Kai and team captain Chang Yuchen contributed 14 and 12 points, respectively./ASC, WDJ