With its first victory, Akari sees light at tunnel’s end
Get swept in your first game. Watch Bella Belen and Capital1 swallow your six match points and hand you another defeat. Akari could have let those two painful losses get to it in the PVL All-Filipino Conference Siklab Series.
But the Chargers hung on.
“We talked before the match and agreed that we would play this game for each other,” said libero Justine Jazareno, who tallied 15 digs. “We know that no one on this team doubts us, so I think our goal was really to stick together and play for one another.”
And now they’re starting to see a little light.
Akari finally got into the win column with a 25-18, 25-19, 25-22 sweep of PLDT on Tuesday at Mall of Asia Arena, with Jazareno spearheading a solid game on both sides of the ball.
“I told them that I’ll take care of the defense and the receiving, while they focus on attacking and setting. That’s really it,” she added.
Eli Soyud led the Chargers with 12 points on 11 kills and one block, while Fifi Sharma had seven points, including the match-winning attack.
Ivy Lacsina, who scored six points—the same output produced by second-unit spikers Faith Nisperos and Jyne Soreño—stressed the value of playing relaxed against the High Speed Hitters.
“I think we just stuck to our game plan and trusted each other. We really enjoyed the game, too, because that’s what we wanted to see from ourselves—to play better and show what we’re capable of,” Lacsina said in Filipino.
“We talked about enjoying the game because we play differently when we’re having fun.”
Lacsina added that the Chargers dismissed the previous losses and refused to put themselves in a must-win situation after their bad start to the season.
“We didn’t want to keep thinking that we absolutely had to win,” she said. “We tried to take that pressure off ourselves and not constantly look at the score. We wanted to focus on showing what our team is capable of, and just check the score at the end.”
Lacsina also said there are a few more improvements that Akari can make to turn the bounce-back victory into a winning streak as it prepares for a duel with Farm Fresh next Tuesday at Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
