Alas Pilipinas’ semifinals hopes at the 2026 AVC Women’s Cup have been dashed.

The nationals bowed out of Final 4 contention after a 16-25, 14-25, 10-25 loss to Chinese Taipei in Pool A on Thursday, June 11, at the Candon City Arena in Ilocos Sur.

With the result, the Philippines’ consecutive finishes at the podium end, after clinching the bronze in 2024 and securing silver last year, when the tournament was still branded as the AVC Nations Cup.

The home bets are now hoping to conclude as third place in the pool to enter the fifth place match in the classification phase.

Alas Pilipinas interim head coach Shaq delos Santos acknowledged that the lack of time to prepare was a “big factor” of the team’s result in general, while keeping his hopes high for the national team program.

“Malaking factor dito is ‘yung preparation namin. And then, siguro talagang kailangan pa ng more time para dito. But we need to accept na ganito talaga ‘yung pwedeng nangyari,” said Delos Santos.

“But ‘di kami mawawalan ng hope kasi mas gusto pa naming maging better pa ‘yung volleyball natin.”

No Alas player breached double-digit territory, with ace Alyssa Solomon leading the pack with a six-point output.

Ces Molina and Niña Ytang had three points each.

Hsu Wan-Yun led the balanced scoring of Chinese Taipei, tallying 13 points on 13 attacks and an ace.

Chang Yi-Chi added 13 points for the visiting side, while Chen Ciao-En enforced her will on the net, listing six blocks en route to a 12-point total.

The winners, at 4-0, have secured a bus ticket to the semifinals in the tourney.

The Philippines concludes pool play at 2-3, and will wait for the conclusion of Pool A action. (ABS-CBN News)