Soul-searching helps Gonzaga fuel ZUS Coffee’s breakthrough
Jovelyn Gonzaga, fresh from a round of introspection, has a different way of counting victories.
Two games into the 2026 PVL All-Filipino Conference, Gonzaga and her ZUS Coffee teammates were left to question their self-created standards—a level inflated by the team’s success in the previous tournament and the assumptions people built based on that accomplishment.
The Thunderbelles started with back-to-back losses and struggled to replicate the form that brought them to the championship series of the Reinforced Conference.
“[E]ven I was struggling,” the 34-year-old veteran said. “But as I kept saying, … if we can overcome what we are going through, that’s a win for us already. We didn’t let go of each other [and] we don’t put the blame on anyone. Instead, we looked for solutions to whatever problems the team had.”
Officially, ZUS Coffee now also has a win that counts.
The Thunderbelles fought back from a 2-1 set deficit, weathered a strong rally by their foes in the fourth set, then displayed their trademark tenacity in the decider to hold off Akari, 16-25, 25-18, 18-25, 25-23, 15-12 late Thursday at the FilOil EcoOil Centre.
Locker room leader
In looking for answers, Gonzaga—the locker room leader of a young ZUS squad, had to search deep within herself, so that she could fire up her teammates.
“I told coach I needed to return to myself,” the decorated hitter said after finishing with 14 points. “For the past two games, it felt like I was lost and I needed to redeem myself.”
Gonzaga delivered several clutch plays for her team, while Chinnie Arroyo led ZUS with 18 points in the victory, which helped the Thunderbelles breathe easier after gasping under the weight of everyone’s expectations—including their own.
“We were blinded by the reality of the standards that we set,” Gonzaga said.
“Even me and within the team, we were creating pressure by questioning why we were losing when the assumptions of people were [that we would be winning],” she added.
After wrestling with all the self-doubt, Gonzaga and the Thunderbelles decided to take a different approach.
“[W]e went back to basics,” she said. “Our team-building helped a lot because it humbled us, it brought us back to zero. We needed to delete everything that happened [in the past], all the achievements that we gained last year and go back to how we started.
“That way, we could start again as a team,” she added.
That restart will run through another major obstacle when ZUS faces Creamline on Feb. 17.
But Gonzaga, having returned to herself, isn’t allowing worry to overtake her anymore.
“At least, whatever will happen, our path is clearer,” she said. “We don’t want to put pressure on ourselves anymore because we tend to lose our way [when that happens].”
