Philippines women's national volleyball team

The Philippine national team was a regional powerhouse in Southeast Asia having won gold medals at the 1977, 1979, 1981, 1985, 1987 and 1993 editions of the Southeast Asian Games.[1] The Philippines also participated at its first and only FIVB Volleyball World Championship in 1974.[2]

The national team had its last gold medal at the Southeast Asian Games finish under Russian-Latvian head coach Staņislavs Lugailo, who was part of the Soviet Union men's national team that won gold at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, was hired to lead the team in 1990. He guided the team to its bronze medal finish at the 1991 Southeast Asian Games. The national team had a training camp in Japan in 1992 where it played games against Japanese volleyball clubs. Lyugailo later led the national team to win a gold medal at the Southeast Asian Games in 1993 defeating defending champions Thailand in the final. Thailand would later defeat the Philippines in the next edition in 1995 in the gold medal match. The Philippines fail to duplicate its gold medal games for the next editions of the Southeast Asian Games with Thailand establishing dominance in women's volleyball in the region.[3][4][5][6]

The Philippine national team did not see international play after the 2005 edition of the Southeast Asian Games and the Asian Championships. The Philippines won a bronze medal at the 2005 Southeast Asian Games. They would make a comeback at the Asian Championships in 2013 and at the Southeast Asian Games in 2015 respectively.[7][8][9]

After failing to get a podium finish at the 2015 Southeast Asian Games, it was decided that the national team coached by Roger Gorayeb will be disbanded.[10] However it is later decided that Gorayeb will remain coach of the national team which participated in another tournament, the 2015 VTV International Women's Volleyball Cup.[11][12] The team finish last out of six teams and was without many of its players that played in the Southeast Asian Games.[13]