Handout/PNVF
Following the conclusion of the Volleyball World Beach Volley Pro Tour Challenge, the famed tandem of Sisi Rondina and Bernadeth Pons and the rest of Alas Pilipinas beach volleyball teams are shifting their focus to the 2025 Southeast Asian Games, scheduled for December later this year in Thailand.
Dubbed as "SiPons," the duo of Rondina and Pons made history for the Philippines, winning the country's first-ever match in the Beach Pro Tour Challenge to reach the round of 24.
They stopped Slovenia's Ziva Javornik and Tajda Lovsin on their tracks, 21-19, 21-9, on Friday morning, before bowing out against Switzerland's Annique Niederhauser and Menia Bentele, 21-18, 22-24, 12-15, later that day.
READ: Rondina, Pons bow out of Nuvali beach volley tilt after gritty stand vs. Swiss pair
Banking on this breakthrough, they aim for greater heights in the biennial sporting meet against their ASEAN neighbors.
“We’re all happy that we were able to participate in the Challenge, although it was a short campaign for us, we learned a lot from every match that we can apply in SEA Games,” Pons said in a statement made available to the media.
“We must continue training hard, we must be consistent in our timing, attacks, receives and blocking,” Pons added. “’Good thing we were able to play against competitive teams in the Challenge.”
Rondina and Pons previously won SEA Games bronze medals in 2019 on home soil and in 2022 in Vietnam.
READ: Rondina, Pons score breakthrough win in Beach Pro Tour series
Alas Pilipinas’s Brazilian head coach Joao “Kioday” Luciano Simao Barbosa also shared the possible members for the national teams in Thailand.
The Philippines is allowed to field two teams in the SEA Games.
The list includes Sunny Villapando and Dij Rodriguez, Jenny Gaviola and Alexa Polidario and Kly Orillaneda and Gen Eslapor for the women's side.
"We’re ready anytime if chosen for the SEA Games,” Gaviola said. “We’ll determine what adjustments to make.”
For the men's division, the candidates are Cambodia 2023 SEAG bronze medalists James Buytrago and Ran Abdilla, Ronniel Rosales and Rancel Vergara and Edwin Tolentino and Larry John Francisco.
The country aims to overcome Thailand and Indonesia, which are the forces to be reckoned with in this region, garnering eight gold medals each in the women and men categories.