Sisi Rondina from Choco Mucho. – PVL PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – Sisi Rondina powered Choco Mucho to survive a five-set thriller against Farm Fresh, 25-15, 24-26, 21-25, 25-21, 15-12 in the PVL All-Filipino Conference Tuesday at night at PhilSports Arena.
Rondina was essential for the Flying Titans to finish their preliminary tasks with strength, with 29 points built in 24 attacks, in addition to five blocks, the best in the game.
“Farm Fresh’s improvement is big now, as is their peak, they really agreed with us, they really don’t want to lose,” said Rondina as Choco Mucho improved to 9-2 ahead of their semi-final run.
SCHEDULE: 2024 PVL All-Filipino Conference
“We just tried this game and I'm really interested in their Japanese program. I like their program and I hope that in situations like this we can go together,” she added after also registering 18 excellent catches.
Still filling the gap left alongside slugger Kat Tolentino, Royse Tubino supported Rondina with 16 points, Isa Molde 12 points and Cherry Nunag 10 points as Choco Mucho bounced back from a straight sets loss to sister team Creamline.
READ: PVL: Sisi Rondina admits that Creamline exposed Choco Mucho's flaws
“Right now we've been put through a test so that when we get to the semi-finals we can maximize what we do,” said coach Dante Alinsunurin. “But credit to Farm Fresh, skill-wise, they really worked hard on their receivers, that’s where we really struggled with our blocking and our pattern of ground defense.”
“Little by little we were patient, luckily for my players who are out there, we also maximized who we can use on the court,” he added.
Farm Fresh pushed Choco Mucho to the limit after strongly winning the second and third sets behind Trisha Tubu's career-best 32 points.
Kate Santiago was there with Tubu after scoring 21 points, while Rizza Cruz added 12 points.
READ: PVL: Still no schedule for the return of Choco Mucho by Kat Tolentino
“Two (what we learned) one negative, one positive: the first negative seems like it should have been present in our situation, we should have maximized that second set, we didn't, but it's positive because I saw that I still have players that I can use when it comes to of crucial games”, said Alinsunurin.
Farm Fresh held on until the final frame, before Rondina hit a back row shot for the lead, which Choco Mucho didn't relinquish from then on.
Tubu kept the Foxies in line with the Flying Titans with a crossover attack to cut the margin to just three, while Chinnie Arroyo followed with a kill of his own.
But Rondina got tired of hitting another hit in the back row to end the night.
“Even if this game isn’t working out, we can still maximize what we need when it comes to the semifinals,” Alinsunurin said. “We were tested, we were tested on what we should do.
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“Maybe we’ll focus on the things we need to when we get to the end of the sets.”
