Choco Mucho struggled without two of its key players but still hacked out a 23-25, 25-20, 25-16, 25-27, 15-11 victory over Army to wheel back into contention in the Premier Volleyball League All Filipino Conference elims at the Filoil Ecooil Center in San Juan on Thursday.
Des Cheng and Bea de Leon skipped the match due to various reasons and the Flying Titans needed to lean on their big fighting heart to subdue the Lady Troopers and snap a two-game skid for a 2-2 card for sixth place in the nine-team field.
"We were very lucky although I told our team to take it slowly. Whatever we wanted to happen on the court, we saw it today (yesterday) and maybe our blocking improved, so our defense became better," said Choco Mucho coach Dante Alinsunurin, who drew a superb game from Isa Molde, who responded to the challenge and fired 19 points on 18 attacks.
Cheng suffered from stomach flu while de Leon, part of the team’s vaunted triple tower threat, was under the weather.
Kat Tolentino also cramped out in the third set but still finished with a game-high 20 points on 18 attacks.
Unable to finish off the Lady Troopers in four, the Flying Titans came out strong in the decider and took 12 of the first 17 points, aided by a miscommunication between Ivy Perez and Lut Malaluan, but needed to thwart the former's fightback in the stretch to pound out the hard-earned victory.
Royse Tubino, Jeanette Villareal and Perez rallied the team from a seven-point deficit to within one, 11-12.
Regine Arocha also marked her debut for the Flying Titans with 13 points, including three clutch hits in the decider, while Maddie Madayag added 10 markers on five attacks, three blocks and two aces.
Denden Lazaro-Revilla came through with 19 excellent digs and nine excellent receptions, while Deanna Wong finished with 15 excellent sets for the Rebisco-backed squad.
Choco Mucho missed the chance to wrap it up in four after Tolentino put the team at match point, 24-22, on an off-the-block hit as Nene Bautista and Tubino scored two consecutive points to extend the set.
Though Bautista botched her service attempt in the following play, Army took the next point and Caitlyn Viray’s attack error sent the match to a fifth set.
Villareal led the way for the Lady Troopers with 19 points on 15 attacks and four blocks, while Tubino had 17 points.
Bautista and Malaluan added 12 markers for Army, which fell to 0-4 for its 17th consecutive loss dating back to the Invitationals last year.
