Choco Mucho left no room for doubt about its dominance over Galeries Tower, delivering a resounding 25-21, 25-16, 25-20 victory that marked its third consecutive win following an initial loss in the Premier Volleyball League All-Filipino Conference elims at the Santa Rosa Sports Complex in Laguna on Thursday.
The Flying Titans out-steadied the Highrisers in the first set, ran them to the ground in the next then rallied from an early deficit with a surge midway through the third frame before foiling the latter at endgame to complete the one-hour, 32-minute victory that came after posting a pair of 3-0 romps, the last over the Cignal HD Spikers last week.
But the long break hardly took its toll on the Flying Titans, who continued to take their game to the next level following a four-set defeat to the Creamline Cool Smashers last Oct. 15, joining the Chery Tiggo Crossovers and the PLDT High Speed Hitters at third with 3-1 (win-loss) cards.
Galeries Tower absorbed its fourth straight loss to fall into a tie with Gerflor.
While Sisi Rondina delivered another 16-point game she marked with highlight-reel spikes for the nth time, Regine Arocha grabbed the spotlight in the absence of injured Des Cheng and a couple more teammates, scoring eight points while starting for the team for the first time in the season-ending conference of the league organized by Sports Vision.
“Ginawa ko lang yung tinuturo sa training but I know madami pa akong kulang, madami din errors,” said Arocha, who also finished with seven excellent receptions. “Pero gagalingan ko pa sa mga susunod na games at pagta-trabahuan ko pa sa training.”
“I told them that we needed to work hard, na ayusin ang galaw at kontrolado naman namin (ang laro),” said Rondina, who also made 10 excellent digs and seven receptions in a superb all-around performance.
Caitln Viray backed Rondina with 11 points while Bea de Leon also stepped up in the absence of Maddie Madayag, coming through with 10 markers, spiked by back-to-back quick attacks off Deanna Wong’s brilliant plays that made it 22-18 for Choco Mucho in the third set.
“Me mga problema pero sa panalong ito, nakuha yung kumpiyansa…na kahit sino tawagin mo sa bench ay nagde-deliver,” said Choco Mucho coach Dante Alinsunurin.
Aduke Ogunsanya added four points while Maika Ortiz, Kat Tolentino and Wong chipped in two points apiece.
Rap Aguilar scored seven points while Ysa Jimenez and Norielle Ipac matched five-point outputs and Joy Doromal, Grazielle Bombita and Audrey Paran finished with four points apiece for the Highrisers, who kept it close in the first and third sets but just couldn’t match up the Flying Titans’ firepower and endgame savvy.
Choco Mucho unloaded 45 attack points against Galeries’ 28 with the Flying Titans also scoring six aces against the Highrisers’ one.
Wong also finished with 14 excellent sets in another fine display of playmaking that got almost everybody involved while Tonnie Rose Ponce produced 17 excellent digs in the victory.
