When a door closes, a window opens — and for the Cignal, that window came in the form of the Premier Volleyball League’s newly introduced play-in tournament, where losing teams from the qualifying round battle for the last two spots in the quarterfinals.
So, when the dust settled after their embarrassing loss to the tenth-ranked Galeries Tower, HD Spikers team captain Dawn Catindig wasted no time rallying the squad.
She urged them to shift their focus to the upcoming play-in round instead of dwelling on the disappointing defeat.
“Siyempre ‘yung opportunity pa rin na makapasok sa quarters. Although it is a challenge na we have to go through the play-in, but that’s the reality na kailangan namin i-accept,” answered Catindig when asked what kept them going after losing a match of that magnitude.
Cignal ranked third in the eliminations despite losing key players in the midst of the tournament. The team was heavily favored to win against the Highrisers, who only won a single game in the eliminations.
However, Galeries had a few surprises up its sleeve, stunning the HD Spikers in four sets, 17-25, 22-25, 25-19, 19-25, last Thursday to punch their ticket to the PVL playoffs for the first time in franchise history.
(C) PVL Images
The 28-year-old Catindig admitted that it wasn’t easy to lift the team’s spirits, especially after such a crushing defeat.
But she shared that the team drew strength from the words of their coaching staff — and more importantly, from the fact that their playoff hopes were still very much alive.
“For me as one of the Ates, it was a challenge na paano pa-realize sa kanila na may mga maganda pa rin naman kaming nagawa,” said the former league Best Libero.
“It’s just that ayun nga, bilog ang bola. Maraming pwedeng mangyari and nire-reassure lang kami nila coach na there’s still an opportunity na makapasok sa quarterfinals. Kailangan lang namin siyang pagtrabahuhan.”
On Thursday night, Cignal bounced back in the biggest of ways, opening the much-awaited play-in tournament with a four-set, 25-21, 22-25, 25-17, 25-15 victory over Capital1 to inch closer to the coveted quarterfinals slot in Pool B.
And Catindig couldn’t be prouder of how the team responded after the deflating loss, which is considered one of the biggest — if not the biggest — upsets in league history.
“Syempre proud ako sa teammates ko, sa buong team na nagtulong tulong talaga para mabalik nga ‘yung confidence ng isa’t isa.”
