After being out for over a year, setter Iris Tolenada has given her volleyball career in the Philippines one more shot.
Tolenada, the first overall pick of the 2015 Philippine Superliga Draft, was last seen playing for the Philips Gold Lady Slammers in the All-Filipino Conference early 2015.
The five-foot-eight floor general’s excellent showing with the Lady Slammers during the all-local conference were enough to name her as the tournament’s Best Setter.
But what came as a surprise for many was her absence in the next conference, the 2015 PSL Grand Prix, which somehow sent down the Lady Slammers’ fans’ expectations towards their Best Setter.
It turned out that the reason behind her exit from the Philippine volleyball courts was because of a job offer in the United States, the land she grew up in.
With the incident now considered a thing of the past, Tolenada staged a comeback this year, this time playing for the Pocari Sweat Lady Warriors in the 13th Shakey’s V-League Reinforced Conference.
The Fil-Am setter shared to Tiebreaker Times about her whereabouts during her year-long hiatus, saying that all her activities were still volleyball-related.
“During the past year, I was part of the coaching staff of University of Santa Clara in California,” said Tolenada moments after Pocari defeated Coast Guard Monday night.
“I also coached two high school teams, and played for competitive traveling clubs,” she added.
With her busy schedule that required her to juggle duties as a coach and as a player, Tolenada was grateful that she still had lots of opportunities to remain in tip-top form.
“I work out all the time, and it’s great that I also get to practice with the teams I coach,” shared the San Francisco State alumna.
Tolenada’s decision to come back here in the Philippines stems from her desire to prove to others and to herself that she can still be more than the Best Setter she was last year.
“Last year didn’t settle well with me. Maybe because I felt like I could’ve done more.”
“So I came back now with a different mindset,” said the former California Collegiate Athletic Association Most Valuable Player.
Now that she’s back in the local volleyball scene, all that Tolenada desires is to help the 2016 Open Conference titlists play better as the import-laden tourney rolls.
“I look forward to getting in the gym with my teammates and work on the things that we can get better up,” Tolenada quipped.
