CHOCO Mucho’s bid for a qualifying round berth fizzled out with a 4-5 finish to the 2026 PVL All-Filipino Conference preliminaries.
It left the Flying Titans one win short of staying in the top-four hunt and sent them to the longer, harsher path to the semifinals through the play-ins.
READ: Choco Mucho enters play-ins with steam after beating ZUS Coffee
Still, team captain Des Cheng believes this campaign has revealed something bigger for Choco Mucho that maybe, and finally, this is no longer just Sisi Rondina’s team.
“Maybe we have to realize din na this Choco Mucho team right now, it's not a one-man team anymore,” Cheng said.
“Everybody can contribute, kahit na sino ihugot ni coach, even ‘yung mga nasa bench.”
For the longest time, Choco Mucho’s rise and fall had been tied to Rondina, whose firepower carried the Flying Titans as far as the finals.
Now, that script is starting to crack.
In their prelims-ending four-set win over ZUS Coffee, Rondina was only one of five players who scored in double figures. Even marquee recruit Eya Laure barely needed to make an impact, checking in only at the end and scoring just once, a drop shot that sealed the win.
That was enough to show Choco Mucho now has more ways to hurt teams. But the problem is, it still has not learned how to make things easier for itself.
“Parang mas gusto kasi ng team na nahihirapan muna bago [manalo],” Flying Titans mainstay Maddie Madayag said in jest.
“As a team, kailangan namin ma-realize na there are other ways to win. ‘Di naman namin kailangan dumaan sa sobrang hirap, ‘di ba?
“Kailangan namin i-work out ‘yung confidence on how we can get the win and i-figure out kung paano ba talaga kami magco-connect. Hindi pwede hinahayaan lang ‘yung mga bagay-bagay.”
The record says the same.
Choco Mucho won in straight sets only once all prelims, and that came on opening day against Akari. The rest of its wins came the hard way, in four sets against ZUS Coffee and Nxled, and in a five-set escape over Galeries Tower.
Business as usual
Now, there is no more margin for drama.
The Flying Titans head into a knockout play-in against ZUS Coffee on Tuesday, where one bad night could wipe out everything.
Cheng and Madayag were both under the weather in that final prelims win, but that hardly mattered to the captain.
“Trabaho ‘to eh,” Cheng said.
“Regardless kung anong nararamdaman namin, kailangan naming magtrabaho. May sakit or wala, nasa training naman kami. Everyday na namin ginagawa ‘to, kaya may sakit man kami or wala, alam na namin sa utak na namin, physically, mentally, alam na namin kung anong gagawin namin.
“Palakasan na lang ng resistensya talaga dahil matitibay naman ‘yung loob ng bawat isa rin sa team.”
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
