WHEN the groupings for the 2024 Premier Volleyball League Reinforced conference was announced, things looked bleak for Capital1 - a six-month-old club which only won a single game in its maiden PVL campaign just a few months ago.
Slated in Pool B that featured champion sides Cignal, Petro Gazz, title contender Choco Mucho, and a retooled Akari team, the Solar Spikers brightened that outlook with awe-inspiring performances which resulted to an early win, got another one, before tasting their first ever back-to-back wins in franchise history to close round one.
In doing so, the Solar Spikers not only competed in the so-called "Hell Group," they joined unbeaten Akari and Cignal in the upper echelon of Pool D come the next round where they'll be paired with the three bottom teams of Pool A after finishing third in the six-team group with a 3-2 record.
READ: Capital1 caps PVL round 1 in style with win over ZUS Coffee
From Russian import Marina Tushova’s historic 45-piece and a productive trio of draft picks in Leila Cruz, Roma Doromal and Jenya Torres,to returnee Iris Tolenada’s stellar playmaking, bright spots have been aplenty early into Capital1’s second-ever PVL conference.
And for a veteran mentor in Roger Gorayeb who’s been through it all in the sport, his six-month ride calling the shots for Capital1 has been nothing short of euphoric and encouraging — one that bodes well for the future, just as he envisioned it to be.
“Sabi ko nga sa kanila sa dugout, what you do inside (the court), reflects whatever I planned for them in a matter of six months, na-regroup ko itong team na ‘to into a very good team,” the Capital1 shot-caller said.
“Malaking-malaking bagay ’yun kasi nakikinig, mababait yung mga player ko. Wala akong problema. Napakawalang problema. It's just a matter of them understanding ano ba yung pinagagawa ko, para saan ba to," he added.
“Masayang-masaya ako dahil naglaro na sila nang maganda, nagre-respond sila. Basta, sino bang hindi sasaya? Napakasaya ko. Kung sa Tagalog, maganda ‘yung pangitain sa future. Talagang nag-bibuild, nag-sstart pa lang kami kaya maganda ‘yung future at looking forward pa ako for a better future.”
Stepping up to the plate
Seeing how the young Solar Spikers’ rebuild has translated to on-court competence, Tolenada and Tushova couldn’t be any more thrilled with how the team's been progressing.
As the pair slowly embraced the role of leaders for this young squad, the team responded by shedding its underdog tag through tripling their number of wins from their first run just five games into the season.
“I’m really proud because it’s a young team, we’re still building a program, we haven’t been together for so long but we come in the gym every day with a purpose and that’s why we’re able to be successful especially when we need to be,” said Tolenada.
Tushova added:
“We always talk about just being resilient and competing on the court. It’s up to us because we’re the underdogs, we played another underdog team so underdog battle is pretty awesome to watch so it’s really everyone committing to keeping the ball off on our side and getting more kills."
“When we started this conference, we make points more because of some mistakes of other team and not the clear point. Today, my teammates did clear points. We did a great job for real.”
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