The Philippine women's volleyball team bowed out of the 6th AVC Cup for Women after dropping another five-set heartbreaker.
Iran recovered from a 1-2 deficit to come away with a 27-29, 25-16, 17-25, 25-12, 15-13 victory Monday in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand.
Coming off a tough opening defeat to Australia where they squandered a 2-0 edge, the Filipinas once again collapsed in the endgame against the Iranians.
With this loss, the Philippines lost a chance to advance to the quarterfinals. Australia and Iran are sporting identical 2-0 records, while the Philippines and Kazakhstan are both winless after two outings. Only the top two teams in Pool C will move to the next round.
After a dominant Set 4 win, the Iranians got off to a hot 4-1 start in the decider. Maedeh Borhani, who had been a thorn in the Philippines' side from the get-go, kept Iran in the driver's seat. Cha Cruz-Behag and Alyssa Valdez conspired to tie it at 10-all before Mahsa Kadkhoda responded with two straight points.
Mylene Paat and Valdez kept the Philippines in the game, then a service error by Iran knotted the score for the last time at 13. Borhani's back-to-back hits sealed the win for the Iranians.
The Philippines rallied back to claim the extended first set before succumbing to Iran in the second period.
Behind Paat's aggressive scoring, the Filipinas established as high as an 11-point advantage in Set 3. Iran trimmed it down to four, 20-16, before Paat and Aby Maraño's net defense gave the momentum back to the Philippines. The Filipinas finished strong for a 2-1 set lead.
However, it was the Iranians' turn to wax hot in the fourth frame as they raced to 14-3 lead by capitalizing on the Philippines' first ball woes. Valdez tried to get her team's offense going with consecutive attacks but Iran continued to widen the gap to extend the match to a fifth set.
Valdez topscored for the Philippines with 24 points highlighted by 22 spikes, while Paat delivered 10 points off eight kills and two blocks. Maraño added eight markers.
For Iran, Kadkhoda sizzled with 30 points, while Borhani contributed 18 markers.
The Philippines will clash with Kazakhstan on Tuesday at 5:00 PM, to cap off the preliminary round before competing in the classification matches.