REMEMBER, THEY’RE TITANS
Players will come and go for Choco Mucho. What matters now, though, is the commitment of the remaining—and returning—cogs for Dante Alinsunurin.
“We accept the fact that in every conference, we will lose or encounter problems with players,” Alinsunurin said in Filipino after the Flying Titans survived a marathon 27-29, 25-20, 25-19, 17-25, 15-12 clash against Galeries Tower in the PVL All-Filipino Conference on Thursday at Filoil EcoOil Arena.
It’s the first time in a little over three months that the Titans won. Their last victory was on Aug. 13 against Chery Tiggo in the Reinforced Conference that Sisi Rondina and Cherry Nunag missed due to national team duties.
The two returned along with Kat Tolentino, who is still not a hundred percent after suffering an auditory condition, to pick up the Titans from the series of unfortunate events it has been having after two consecutive silver finishes in the last two All-Filipino Conferences.
Des Cheng has also returned from an ACL injury but leader Maddie Madayag is now playing overseas while Deanna Wong has been sidelined due to a persistent knee injury.
“We just got used to whoever is here with the team, whoever is available, we’ll just find a way to win,” Alinsunurin said. “Whatever challenges we encounter in what we want to do, we will just steel ourselves. At least we know that in this situation, we’ll continue to fight.”
Filling the void
Tolentino is slowly rediscovering her form. After a respectable 12 points in her first game back, she led Choco Mucho in scoring on Thursday with 27 points to push the Titans to a 1-1 (win-loss) record and the Highrisers to a 0-2 start.
“Since I’ve been here the longest, I think it’s about time I step up, and I have to also fill that [leadership] role,” Tolentino, who also caught 10 excellent digs, said. “I am also one of the older girls, so I know that it’s not about playing, but it is also about leading the team and I am willing to take that [role] and help everyone else.”
Rookie middle blocker Lorraine Pecaña filled the void left by Madayag in the center of Choco Mucho’s defense with 10 points and also had seven of the Titans’ 22 blocks—the same output by Tolentino—including two crucial ones in the deciding fifth set.
Alas stalwarts Rondina and Nunag provided 19 and 14 points, respectively. Libero Thang Ponce did her part, defending the Titans’ floor with 18 excellent digs and 14 excellent receptions. Mars Alba got Choco Mucho going with 20 excellent sets.
“[Pecaña] is slowly working on it in the training and her hard work is showing and she wants to be better … I hope she continues what she is doing. She still has a lot more to work for but she needs to stay humble on the court and she’ll go far,” Alinsunurin said, while also complimenting Tolentino.
“Every time Kat is in the lineup, she has my full trust. I [felt bad] when she got sick but like I said, this is her time to recover. I observe her in practice, looking for what else she can do but I end up feeling shy because she is coming from sickness,” Alinsunurin said.
“I was forced to sub her out the last game because I wanted to observe if she could already play longer, but she told me that I was wrong and that I could’ve given her more playing time and maybe we could’ve gotten a better result,” he added referring to Choco Mucho’s opening loss to Petro Gazz.
