National team head coach Shaq Delos Santos said that they won’t risk Mau in the second leg due to an achilles injury that she sustained during their Thailand build-up.
“Definitely, hindi muna siya maglalaro ngayong second leg kasi talagang kailangan niya magpagaling muna,” said Delos Santos on the outside spiker, who averaged 14.3 points per game in the first leg.
Besides Mau, her bestfriend Robins-Hardy, is ineligible for the second leg as she doesn’t have Philippine passport.
After the national team training camp and their bronze medal finish in the first leg held in Thailand, Mau already missed two matches of F2 Logistics in the Philippine Superliga Invitationals.
The Filipina-American spiker told the reporters on Saturday that she has skin allergy but it turned out that she is also nursing an achilles injury as revealed by F2 Logistics head coach Ramil De Jesus.
“After nung game nila sa Thailand, pagdating nila dito hindi na siya nakatraining, sumasakit yung achilles and then pinacheck up namin sabi ng doctor, rest muna for one week,” said De Jesus. “Then tsaka pa lang titignan kung may improvement or maless yung pain. Pag hindi, tuloy two to three weeks (rest).”
Besides losing Mau and Robins-Hardy, Alyssa Valdez and Jia Morado, who had teeth extraction, expressed on Sunday that they are doubtful to play in the second leg as the Creamline management has instructed them to play in their Premier Volleyball League game in IloIlo City in Saturday.
National team member Maddie Madayag is also unsure as Choco Mucho faces Valdez’s and Morado’s Creamline in Ilo-ilo City as well as Jovelyn Gonzaga, who also has a game for Pacifictown-Army facing Petro Gazz.
But Delos Santos said all these PVL players committed to play in the ASEAN Grand Prix and Larong Volleyball sa Pilipinas Inc. is negotiating with their club teams.
“I think ok naman sila kahit na meron silang out of town paguusapan lang na merong best way na magagawa pero nagcommit naman sila,” he said.
If the PVL players won’t be available, the nationals will be down to nine women composed of team skipper Aby Marano, First leg’s Best Middle Blocker Majoy Baron, Mylene Paat, Roselyn Doria, Ces Molina, Aiza Maizo-Pontillas, Eya Laure, Dawn Macandili and Kath Arado.
As the tournament requires 14 players, Delos Santos bared that they will loan players from other clubs to play for the 2nd Leg but he didn’t disclose the names yet.
“Mabigat kasi siyempre ako as a coach kailangan meron akong laging magandang line-up kaya lang siyempre part kasi yan so doon na lang kami magfofocus sa solusyon,” said Delos Santos. “Most likely outside (at setter), yung kaposition ni Kalei (at Alohi).”
Delos Santos said that he and LVPI might announce the line-up for the Philippines leg of the ASEAN Grand Prix on Tuesday.
SOURCE: https://www.spin.ph/volleyball/kalei-mau-alohi-robins-hardy-philippine-women-s-volleyball-team-asean-grand-prix-second-leg-a2522-20190930
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