FARM Fresh posted its best tournament start in franchise history with a 25-22, 22-25, 25-21, 25-22 rout of Capital1 in the 2025 PVL Reinforced Conference on Tuesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
This is the Foxies’ first unbeaten three-game start to a PVL campaign in two years.
For context, Farm Fresh has won just three games total in three of the seven conferences it has been part of.
Belgian import Helene Rousseaux fired her second 30-piece of the conference with 36 points.
Alohi Robins-Hardy steadied the Foxies’ ship amid a late Capital1 comeback bid with nine points on eight attacks behind 21 excellent sets.
Trisha Tubu and Ces Molina added 13 markers each, with the latter also churning out 15 rececptions.
The match took a turn late in the third set with both teams tied at one set apiece.
A 17-10 Foxies lead evaporated into a 21-all deadlock as Bella Belen and Ukrainian import Oleksandra Bytsenko joined forces to keep the Solar Spikers in contention.
Then came a pair of clutch services aces from Tubu along with Molina and Rizza Cruz gave Farm Fresh a pivotal two sets to one lead before pulling away in four.
That rollercoaster ride from the sidelines felt like 'giving birth' in the eyes of Farm Fresh head coach Alessandro Lodi, who was nonetheless relieved to see his wards put the game away.
"Sometimes, this team's games are like giving birth. It feels like that. But we are a team that fights and a team that never gives up," Lodi said.
"Belen and Bytsenko are two hell of scorers and we knew that. We knew it would be hard and we likely made things harder for ourselves with some stupid decisions. We'll need to grow from that if we want to go on a higher level with grit, determination and clarity of our system."
Belen's 20-point, 19-dig double-double backed Bytsenko's 26-piece as Capital1 fails to make it back-to-back wins after a four-set breakthrough past Nxled last Thursday.
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