Newly-crowned MVP Brooke Van Sickle was left in awe by the intense passion she witnessed within the Philippine volleyball community during her first campaign with Petro Gazz in the 2024 Premier Volleyball League All-Filipino Conference.
The Filipina-American outside hitter expressed delight at being a part of and seeing firsthand the growth of the sport in the Philippines, which she intends to represent in future international tournaments after deciding to switch federations.
“I knew that the volleyball was going to be good. That was a given. Just seeing all the fans and how passionate are everyone about volleyball here, it’s cool to see this growth of the sport,” said Van Sickle shortly after hoisting the Conference MVP award.
“It feels extremely professional, it feels awesome. It’s fantastic to play here,” she added.
Van Sickle had a debut to remember with the Angels, who she led to a third-place finish after edging Chery Tiggo in points ratio following two games in the Battle for Bronze series.
(C) Joaqui Flores/PVL
The 26-year-old product of University of Hawaii eventually brought home her second MVP award since arriving in the Philippines.
She also led the league in total points scored with 293 points on 242 attacks, 29 kill blocks, and 22 aces.
Moreover, she ranked fourth in spiking and blocking, and seventh in digging and reception
“Again, just very grateful for my teammates. It’s a six-man sport. I won’t be able to do it without them. It’s just icing on top, to be able to do a podium finish, it was good,” said Van Sickle, who also won the PNVF Champions League MVP earlier this year.
“I thought Chery Tiggo did a fantastic job, we could have potentially played three (games,) but things happened and I’m just happy to help my team,” she added.
While Van Sickle and the Angels failed to complete their ultimate goal of winning the championship, the University of Hawaii standout believes that the team’s time will come if they stay and work together.
“Being able to make it to the podium this conference, I believe when everyone’s one and we’re being consistent, our team’s capable of doing great things. When you lose, you learn a lot of lessons,” said Van Sickle.
“Losing’s not fun but it’s just exciting to be able to have that room for growth and be able to still be optimistic and seeing the standard of volleyball and everything like that, seeing the type of volleyball in the finals and now, how can we get there and how to get there every day. It was exciting to be able to watch this game tonight and learn a lot of things.”
