ALAS Pilipinas lived up to its name as it proved that the squad is composed of aces after making a historic semifinals appearance in the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) 2024 Challenge Cup.

But the Philippines will be put on a test quickly and will once more climb the mountain, as they will face the world-ranked 33rd and AVC's top team Kazakhstan in its semis match on Tuesday, 7 p.m., at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.

National team head coach Jorge Souza de Brito shared that his squad doubled up their preparation to keep up with the tall gunners of Kazakhstan.

"Yes, We already strategized against Kazakhstan. Since yesterday we already put up [on] what should we do. The guys are already aware of that, now we just have to put it in action," he said.

With the tight game schedule from May 24 to 29, Alas Pilipinas strategized its rotation for its players to recover.

"The guys who need to rest did already so we have a practice on Monday, it is a practice of all the players, all together. Just trying to adjust and strategize against Kazakhstan, that is the menu," de Brito added.

Angel Canino served as Alas Pilipinas' top scorer after scoring 17 points against Australia, 22 points versus India, and 16 points over Iran.

Showing the depth of Alas Pilipinas' lineup, Canino rested in their match against Taiwan as Faith Nisperos stepped up and scored eight points, while another second-stringer Vanie Gandler added 12.

"So the question here is the guys, everyone who are inside and even though they go for a short time, they always help, they are always helping the team, that is something, [that is] the more important part, helping the team. One point, two points, one D, even without scoring it is how you can help your teammates," Souza de Brito said, appreciating the team effort of his second stringers.

While on Kazakhstan's side, Sana Anarkulova chipped in 22 points to dominate Hong Kong, 25-17, 25-18, 25-4, last May 26, to finish the preliminaries in pool B with a 3-1 win-loss card.

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