Former Ateneo Lady Eagle ‘fab five’ member, Gretchen Ho, who wore the colors of Petron XCS during the PSL Beach Volleyball games, played at the SM Sands by the Bay, and despite losing their quarterfinals match against Foton Hurricane, was still happy and contented with the improvement of the sport, not just from a general point-of-view, but also in a personal level.
Ho, together with Charo Soriano, played two games on Saturday. They had lost their quarter game against Foton Hurricane in three sets, which eliminated their chance to advance to the next round. However, the team managed to win their following game that same night for their classification match against Philips Gold.
She admitted the minimal experience got the better of them as they squandered against the duo of Bea Tan and Pau Soriano in the third set. “We were happy with the way we played, but I think we just lacked experience playing in the court as partners, and when it comes to decision making, dun kami siguro nag kulang,” said Ho.
Gretchen shed some positive points despite losing against Hurricane, as she shared “We’re happy we’ve gotten this far. I’ve been playing beach volleyball since January lang, so personally I’m happy with my growth as a player.” The crowd-favorite also pointed out that the short time of preparation may be a factor to their setback, but vows to work on it in the next opportunities. “We had a tough week of practice, so ang daming winork on sa aming dalawa. A month ago lang kami naging partners, so medyo dehado kami. But we were close, and we will get them next time,” she added.
Overall, Ho mentioned being proud of beach volleyball as a sport and is pleased with the way people treat it in the present saying, “It’s nice to have this league [PSL] because it’s given more attention now. Nakakatuwa na nakikita natin na umaangat na yung level paunti-unti and hopefully we have more leagues like this.”
Moreover, she views the sport as a promising one, where fans of the game would eventually treat beach volleyball the same way as its indoor counterpart; since the players fielded in playing on the beach have the same type of intensity as in the hardcourts. “It [beach volleyball] is now treated as a separate sport, as opposed to the norm of getting indoor players then putting them on the sand court. Parang ganun yung nangyayari dati, hindi sini-seryoso ng mga tao. Pero ngayon, there are a lot of people here who really love the sport and who are willing to give their time to train,” she concluded.
