Titans finally flying high—and they couldn’t have picked a better time to do so
PASSI CITY, ILOILO—It seems like Choco Mucho is getting its groove back and it couldn’t come at a much better time as things get even more serious in the PVL All-Filipino Conference.
Now that the Flying Titans have figured things out internally, they plan to push on without cracking under pressure.
“[We plan to be] much better in our performance. What’s important is that day-to-day, every game [or] practice, we should be improving,” coach Dante Alinsunurin said in Filipino as the Titans secured their place at No. 5 at the end of the preliminary round.
“We won’t stop until we don’t improve [even more],” Alinsunurin added. “[The thing that helped us] is the [improved] communication. The sort that they understand their job and responsibility to the team … That’s the biggest factor that’s why we can trust each other.”
Choco Mucho wrapped the classification with a sixth straight victory to an 8-3 (win-loss) card after trouncing Chery Tiggo, 25-18, 25-23, 26-24, Saturday night at City of Passi Arena here.
After a rocky start to their campaign, the crowd darlings have steadied their boat and haven’t lost a single game since the beginning of the new year.
Still calm
While the Titans’ string of success allows them to calibrate their system to full throttle and build momentum heading into the knockout qualifying round, its most recent win would weigh a lot more there as they seek to overcome the Crossovers, the No. 8 seeds, again in their pairing.
“[The win] is a big help to us to boost our confidence that we can triumph against [Chery Tiggo],” Alinsunurin said. “But we still need to work on things [we are falling short of] so that we can make sure to win the game.”
Winners of the you-or-me contests will secure their spots in the best-of-three quarterfinals series while losers will be relegated to the play-in tournament where the winners of the two brackets after a single round-robin will complete the quarterfinal cast.
But even as the competition gets tougher, Alinsunurin remains calm in his approach to handling the Titans, the bridesmaids of the last two All-Filipino Conferences—just ask their main gunner Sisi Rondina.
“Coach always reminds us to just push until where we can and just commit and work properly,” Rondina said. “We just need to remain steadfast and be patient [with ourselves] and continue working.”
