BELLA Belen gained a measure of revenge on her pro debut tormentor Choco Mucho as Capital1 scooped up a 25-23, 26-24, 25-19 win in the 2025 PVL Reinforced Conference on Tuesday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
It was a decisive third win for the Solar Spikers that pushed them up to a top three finish in Pool A with a 3-2 win-loss.
Capital1 has now won back-to-back games for the first time this conference, claiming two huge scalps in Cignal and Choco Mucho to turn around a rough 1-2 start.
Ukrainian winger Oleksandra Bytsenko delivered the finishing touches to a breakout win with 17 points on 15 attacks and two blocks.
"This kind of process is super good that we [won] in straight sets, but we need more and we’re gonna fight for more," said Capital1 head coach Jorge Souza de Brito.
"The next part of the tournament is super, super important and the focus now is to recover these guys and [be] back to show up again."
Belen took a scary stumble late in the third set, which she later cleared up as a mere episode of cramps. She dished out 11 points to turn a discarded pro debut sweep loss into a decisive third pro win.
An in-form Bytsenko and the hot hands of Rachel Austero, who had eight points and six digs, kept the Capital1 offense stable as they finished the match off without Belen.
Even Austero wasn't spared from an injury scare as her left knee hit the LED board near the Solar Spikers bench, resulting to an open wound on her shin.
Titanic meltdown
Choco Mucho slid down to a 2-3 record, having lost its last two in Pool A.
Despite fielding American import Marlee Smith to her natural position as an opposite hitter, one where she had 12 points and eight digs, the Flying Titans looked lost and struggled to get any rhythm going as they gave up a set's worth of errors.
Maddie Madayag and Isa Molde led the purple shirts' local core with 12 and 11 points, respectively. The latter even keyed their defense with nine receptions.
Thang Ponce had the floor on lock with 22 digs and 16 receptions but didn't quite cut it in terms of stopping Capital1's Belen-Bytsenko duo from dominating the scoring front.
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