MONTALBAN, Rizal — Alas Pilipinas coach Jorge Souza De Brito is facing a beautiful problem with two different squads to choose from ahead of the upcoming SEA V.League in August and soon, the Southeast Asian Games in Thailand.

Several stars rose to the occasion in the national team’s last two international tournaments, with last year’s core, led by captain Jia De Guzman, Angel Canino, Dell Palomata, Eya Laure, Bella Belen, Alyssa Solomon, Thea Gagate, Fifi Sharma, Vanie Gandler, and Dawn Macandili-Catindig achieving a rare Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) final appearance and finishing as runner-up in the Women’s Nations Cup.

READ: Alas Pilipinas places fourth after loss to Taipei in VTV Cup

Jorge Souza De Brito talks about Alas Pilipinas’ VTV Cup stint. @INQUIRERSports pic.twitter.com/NoHlS1OiVM

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UAAP Rookie of the Year Shaina Nitura also showed her potential in her first Alas stint.

In another tournament in Vietnam, Brooke Van Sickle and MJ Phillips, who are just waiting for the go signal from the FIVB for their transfer of federation, paraded their wares playing for the Philippines in the VTV Women’s International Cup.

Leila Cruz, Alleiah Malaluan, Amie Provido, Tia Andaya, and Justine Jazareno also turned heads despite their fourth-place finish after getting swept by Chinese Taipei in the bronze medal game.

“The problem is good but again, it’s a lot of job to do. The SEA V.League is one month from now. There’s no break. We start this week again,” said De Brito, who went all the way from Vietnam to Montalban for Capital1’s PVL on Tour game against ZUS Coffee on Sunday.

De Brito said the core members are still what the team needs, but he’s blessed to have a good problem of forming a roster from a talent-rich training pool.

READ: Alas Pilipinas loses to Korabelka, set to battle for VTV Cup bronze

“I really believe that we need a core of players. We need to bring this core to many competitions and have time to practice,” De Brito said.

“Of course, you can put up [big] names. These names are good but we need to grow as a team and not just adding star players that are really good. We need to put them inside a system, then lock them in that system and they [should] feel comfortable there. I’m really, really happy because we have these volleyball players.”

Alas finished the VTV Cup Pool A with a 2-1 record after beating Australia and Sichuan from China. The Filipino Spikers dominated Est Cola of Thailand in the quarterfinal before getting eliminated by eventual champion Korabelka of Russia in the semis.

They may have missed the opportunity to win bronze, but the Brazilian coach was happy to see the continuous growth of the national program with a different set of players fighting for the flag.

READ: Alas Pilipinas makes semifinals of VTV Women’s Cup

“It’s the chemistry that we need. It comes with more time, how much more we play together, how much more good games in the high level that we’ll have, and the more we’re gonna grow,” De Brito said.

“We had some good matches there against Russia, against Vietnam. The level we started [in those games] is from here [high level]. If we play a little bit down, you won’t play [a good game]. You’re gonna make only 15 points [in a set].”

“We have to maximize our potential to play against these teams so we have to bring them all the time. We were there with only one opposite spiker, so we need to put some other players to [fill] the position. But again, even during different [games], we played on the same level with them. I’m really happy because if we’ll have any problem during any competition, we can use any player to do another position,” he added.

Alas, which won a pair of bronze medals in the SEA V.League, will compete in Vietnam for the first leg and Thailand in the final leg against its SEA Games rivals starting next month.