SEEING THE LIGHT
Akari coach Tina Salak is starting to see the light, one borne out of a lot of hard work and hunger coming from all of her Chargers, who claimed their first big victim in Creamline, which had the squad knocking on the door of a top-four finish in the PVL All-Filipino Conference.
A 25-21, 26-24, 17-25, 25-21 victory on Thursday night at the Filoil EcoOil Centre in San Juan had the Chargers winning a fourth straight game to temporarily occupy the No. 4 spot heading into the most crucial stages of the classification round.
“What I like about the team is their hunger. Even if we don’t clearly see the identity yet, you can see each player’s composure,” Salak said in Filipino. “Hunger doesn’t get satisfied easily. There’s always that drive for more.”
Ivy Lacsina dropped 20 points, while Mars Alba paced the team with 18 excellent sets as the Chargers rose to 4-3.
“What I want is for them to raise their standards and level of play, both individually and as a team,” Salak went on. “We still have remaining games and our goal now is to finish those games with wins.”
The key to their winning streak was the willingness of each player and all other members of the team to learn from each other.
“We need to continue helping each other every day and understand the situation of the players,” Salak explained. “It’s not easy beating Creamline in four sets. Every day is a learning process for us.
“We learn a lot from each other, because our team is really a learning team, a learning program,” she went on. “Everyone has thoughts and inputs and through that we develop understanding so we can reach our main goal.”
True enough, Lacsina, who also had 17 excellent receptions, always makes a huge room for improvement despite being the team’s leading scorer.
“More than the hunger to win, I always remind myself every day, even when we’re winning, that there should always be space for new learning,” said Lacsina. “That mindset never leaves me because I still have goals I want to achieve. This isn’t the end for me, so it’s still about putting in the work every day and staying disciplined.”
The win marked only the second time Akari has beaten the 10-time champions, following its five-set triumph in the Reinforced Conference on Oct. 11 last year. On Thursday, the Akari defense limited Bernadeth Pons to single-digit scoring for the first time this conference, with just eight points.
Naturally, the win also set a higher standard for Akari.
“In our team, every time we face a different opponent, we set a standard that we need to beat,” Salak said. “This time, the standard is higher because we were able to beat Creamline, so naturally, the pressure on us is higher as well.”
What’s important for Salak and the Chargers, even after stunning Creamline, they have to stay humble and finish their run against Galeries on Tuesday next week and Farm Fresh on March 21.
“For us, we remain humble. We go back to the basics, back down to the ground,” said the Akari coach.
“Tomorrow is recovery day. We look for proper inspiration, good nutrition and recovery, then get back to work,” she said. “Nothing new, we just keep going. If this is what works for us, we continue with it. Like I said, we can see the light.”
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