Coming off a tight loss to Choco Mucho last Tuesday, Brooke Van Sickle showcased her pedigree and helped power Petro Gazz’s rousing sweep of PLDT in the 2024 Premier Volleyball League All-Filipino Conference.
Van Sickle provided stability and delivered clutch hits that allowed the Angels to pull away from the High Speed Hitters, who were threatening to extend the game.
They eventually secured a 25-16, 25-23, 25-21, bounce-back win on Saturday at the Philsports Arena.
The 25-year-old Fil-American spiker fired 23 points on 21 attacks, one block, and one ace to go along with 12 excellent digs and four excellent receptions.
With the win, Petro Gazz move to 2-1 in the standings.
Van Sickle was all class right after the contest, choosing to deflect the credit to her teammates and coaches.
She believes that her impressive offensive performance would not be possible without their help.
“I mean, I can’t do it without my team, right? Basically the balls, you know, were hitting themselves. I’m really happy. Like the connection with the setters is starting to build slowly,” said Van Sickle.
“And, again, it’s a team sport, and they’re great teammates, they make me feel super comfortable. And they have my back as I have their reason. I’m just really proud of this team,” she added.
The ever-humble Van Sickle has been doing such ever since she arrived at Petro Gazz, always opting to redirect the spotlight towards the rest of the team instead of just her.
It turns out, Van Sickle picked up a thing or two from one of her classmates at University of Oregon.
The classmate? Well, it was none other than Ducks legend and New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu.
“My freshman year of college, I went to University of Oregon, right? (It was) 2016, I believe. Yeah, one of my fellow classmates was Sabrina Ionescu and just seeing how she grew as a player, you know, throughout college was something super awesome to watch,” said Van Sickle, who eventually transferred to University of Hawaii.
“Just how she would carry herself off the court, on the court. She’s the most humble person I’ve ever met. She is a true leader, she works consistently hard, even when we were in the classroom, in training, in everything she does,” she continued.
Van Sickle, whose mother hails from San Emilio, Ilocos Sur, said that it helped her a lot as a budding athlete to grow alongside Ionescu, who she described as the ‘most humble person’ she has ever met.
The outside hitter who last played with AEL Limassol shared that she met the former WNBA first overall pick during her rookie year and had several conversations before she transferred to Hawaii.
“We’re not like best friends, we’re maybe really good acquaintances. Just Oregon, it was a big school and everything. But just to be able to have some like conversations with her here and there, it was cool,” said Van Sickle, who is wearing the Magnetic colorway of Ionescu’s signature shoe Sabrina 1.
“It was just really cool to be able to meet an athlete like that, that’s like super successful. She’s getting what she deserves, right? She’s extremely humble like when the cameras are off and behind the scenes and you just talk to her, such a great person. It was really cool to be able to meet her and go to school with her so it was an awesome experience.”
Without a doubt, Van Sickle will bring everything that she learned from Ionescu wherever she goes in her career.
