Choco Mucho Flying Titans’ Kat Tolentino throughout a PVL All-Filipino Convention recreation. –PVL PHOTO
At first look, it might appear that Choco Mucho has been on a decline since persistently being a title contender within the PVL.
After back-to-back silver finishes behind sister crew Creamline final season, the Flying Titans suffered damage points whereas Sisi Rondina and Cherry Nunag have been loaned to the nationwide crew duties as Choco Mucho crashed within the All-Filipino—a free fall that import Zoi Faki did not arrest within the Strengthened Convention.
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They received everybody again for this season’s All-Filipino Convention.
However even with Kat Tolentino and Des Cheng now wholesome and Rondina and Nunag again in harness, Choco Mucho misplaced its match in opposition to Brooke van Sickle and the Petro Gazz Angels. It was sufficient to trigger alarm among the many crew’s followers.
It was, nonetheless, additionally simply their first recreation.
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“I feel we simply have to regulate,” Tolentino stated of the crew’s latest string of dangerous luck. “It’s [our team’s] first recreation so we will’t lose hope or really feel like that is the way it’ll be for the [rest of the All-Filipino] Convention.”
The adjustment comes with the Flying Titans dropping Maddie Madayag, who opted to play abroad, and Deanna Wong, the enigmatic setter nursing a knee damage.
“It’s good to [suffer losses] initially in order that we will study from it and we will repair what we have to repair,” Tolentino, who regardless of nonetheless not being 100% pitched in 12 factors in her first recreation since her return, stated. “I do know I may give extra.”
Turned a nook?
Tolentino stated the absence of Madayag could also be telling, however she additionally sees it as a possibility for others to fill in that function.
“It’s [feels] totally different for me. I’m so used to taking part in with [Madayag] as the center,” Tolentino stated. “However I additionally received used to taking part in with the opposite women so it’s good to see our rookie Lorraine [Pecaña] step up and fill her place.”
Tolentino and the Flying Titans are hoping they’ve turned a nook after a tricky victory over Galeries Tower, 27-29, 25-20, 25-19, 17-25, 15-12, on Thursday.
“We’re a preventing crew,” she stated after the match, after unleashing 20 kills and scoring off seven blocks for a team-high 27 factors.
Pecaña had a key second within the recreation, scoring off two essential blocks, the second of which gave Choco Mucho respiration house, 12-10, after Galeries rallied from three down to come back inside some extent.
Cheng knocked in a key ace whereas Rondina pushed the Titans to match level earlier than closing out the win—each off her trademark highly effective spikes.
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“Since I’ve been with Choco Mucho [in the] starting I’ve seen the way it’s developed and I do know that we’ve to form of fail or lose to be able to win,” the previous Ateneo star, one of many longest-tenured gamers on the crew, stated. “I’ve gone by means of many Choco Muchos the place we’ve misplaced … Choco Mucho has come up to now since after I first began so I’m simply gonna hold working laborious.”
