For Alas quartet, historic SEA Games women's beach volleyball gold takes faith, sacrifices

Alas Pilipinas women's beach volleyball team flaunted their historic gold medal in the 2025 Southeast Asian Games after ending Thailand's 22-year reign. (Photo: Beach Volleyball Republic/Facebook)

Philippine women's national beach volleyball team head coach Joao "Kioday" Luciano Simao Barbosa and her wards set a bigger goal ahead of their campaign in the 2025 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games: “We want to go beyond bronze.”

It wasn't lip service nor an empty promise. 

Instead, realistic.

In recent years, the Filipina beach volleybelles have quietly risen to the ranks of the best in the SEA region after failing to bag a medal since 2005.

Results never lie.

The now-known Alas Pilipinas ended a 14-year medal drought in its own turf in 2019 with a bronze before finishing third for the second straight edition in 2021 in Vietnam. 

Progress, however, doesn’t always look like arrows going up in the charts. In 2023, in Cambodia, the pairs of Sisi Rondina and Jovelyn Gonzaga and Bernadeth Pons and Dij Rodriguez failed to reach the medal round. 

But the defeat didn’t only fuel redemption but rewrote Philippine beach volleyball history forever.

Totoo pala talaga ‘yung manifestation pero syempre may kasamang hard work. – Bernadeth Pons after the Philippines won its first-ever women’s beach volleyball gold in the 2025 Southeast Asian Games.

Thailand has been the unassailable queen of the sands in the region. Since the sport became a medal event in 2003, the Thais have ruled all eight editions it has been played. Not until Friday afternoon, December 19, on their own turf at Jomtien Beach in Chonburi, did they see their 22-year dynasty being halted by a relatively unfamiliar foe.

In their SEA Games finals debut, the legendary quartet of Rondina, Pons, Rodriguez, and Sunny Villapando showed no signs of pressure. Their hunger was insatiable, and dreams as deep as the Marianas Trench – or deeper. They stunned the eight-time defending champion in their best-of-three gold medal match, 2-0.

“Sobrang grateful ko lang talaga kay Lord kasi I manifested talaga ‘tong gold namin. Ilang beses ko rin na-imagine itong moment na ito,” an emotional Pons told reporters, according to the Tiebreaker Times.

She, Rondina, and Rodriguez have seen it all as national team members since 2019 – the ups and downs, and now a historic breakthrough. Patience is indeed a virtue for those who persevere and pour their hearts and souls into the sport.

“Minsan, naluluha na lang ako bigla kasi nai-imagine ko ‘yung moment na ito. Totoo pala talaga ‘yung manifestation pero syempre may kasamang hard work. Sobrang happy ko talaga na nakuha namin ‘yung game. Alam namin na hindi madali,” added Pons.

Filipinos are widely described as religious people. According to a 2020 census cited by online statistics platform Statista, an overwhelming majority of Filipinos practice religion. But prayers are not enough on their own. As the Filipino proverb “Nasa Diyos ang awa, nasa tao ang gawa” (God helps those who help themselves) reminds the faithful, one must also take action – just as the Filipina tandems did on the sand.

“I don't think anybody sees, like you see this shiny moment, but we all know the pain and the heartbreak that happens every single day in practice. And I think that this was a result of all of us sacrificing something, and I think that we just came out and we executed,” said Villapando, a SEA Games debutant with beach volleyball experience in the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the United States, per Rappler.

In sports where results matter more than anything else, sometimes, if not most of the time, sacrifices are often underappreciated. But those are part of the process that could turn a far-fetched dream into a reality.

Pons and Rondina had to take a break from their indoor volleyball careers to focus on the SEA Games. Rodriguez and Villapando, meanwhile, had to prove themselves worthy of being the country’s second pairing despite being first-time partners. The four also traveled across the globe to compete in international tournaments, gaining experience and learning from top competition, all while leaving their families and daily lives behind to chase history for the Philippines.

While the gold glimmers, the ladies who bagged it should be given more spotlight.

“Ang ginawa lang talaga namin is magtrabaho. Sabi ko nga, maging consistent lang kami. Podium, nandyan lang, so ayun. I think consistency ‘yun ang napakita namin kaya kami nakapag-gold, and syempre yung tiwala talaga namin na makuha tong gold,” said Rondina.