The Philippines’ Jayrack De La Noche and Alexander Iraya made it to the Round of 24 of the FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championships in Phuket, Thailand.
But the Negrense pair’s stint was cut short Friday, as Poland’s Mateusz Florczyk and Filip Lejawa eliminated De La Noche and Iraya, 21-11, 21-12.
Despite the exit, the future looks bright for the Philippines in beach volleyball, as the hard-fighting De La Noche and Iraya are expected to move up in the world rankings at the end of the year.
After the U19 world championships, last week where they stunned Estonia and lost their Round of 16 campaign via tiebreak, the University of Santo Tomas high school standouts moved up from No. 351 to No. 301.
In their final pool match in the morning, De La Noche and Iraya put up a fight in the opening set before losing to Hungary’s Csanad Petik and Domonkos Doczi, 21-23, 19-21.
De La Noche and Iraya finished third in Pool G with 1-2. They posted a 21-16, 21-11 win over Canada’s Josh Gagnon and Colby Nemeth Wednesday, De La Noche, and Iraya before bowing to United States’ Matt Gentry and Phillip Catanzaro, 14-21, 21-19, 8-15, on Thursday.
In their international debut last July, De La Noche and Iraya made it to the quarterfinals of the Asian U21 championships.
The Filipinos were fielded in the tournament by the Philippine National Volleyball Federation and backed by the Philippine Sports Commission, Rebisco, Asics and Taguig City Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano.