BACARRA, ILOCOS NORTE — Rhea Dimaculangan has always been a winner ever since she set foot on the Taraflex.
Dimaculangan, who is a UAAP champion with University of Santo Tomas back in Season 72, collected three Shakey’s V-League titles with the Golden Tigresses.
After her collegiate career, the former V-League Best Setter instantly made an impact in the semi-pro ranks.
The Philippine national women’s team stalwart led Foton to the Philippine Super Liga Grand Prix title in 2016 before moving to Petron where she won a total of three championships from 2017 to 2018.
So, it was definitely uncharted territory for Dimaculangan when her PLDT squad ended the Premier Volleyball League Open Conference with a 3-6 standing.
But despite the early exit, Dimaculangan is trusting the process on this one.
After all, she relished every moment of her task — which is to help these young Power Hitters find their niche in the country’s first-ever volleyball professional league.
“Siguro naniniwala talaga ako trust the process,” said Dimaculangan following PLDT’s 25-20, 25-14, 25-19 sweep of Cignal on Friday night.
The 30-year-old Dimaculangan finished with 27 excellent sets on top of four points as the Power Hitters capped off the season with a three-game winning streak — all of which ended in three sets.
“Mababait naman sila tsaka madaling mapasunod kasi nga siyempre mga bata.
“Minsan lang di mo maiwasan na parang natatakot din sila sa akin dahil yung age gap namin medyo malaki kahit konti pero okay naman lahat madali naman silang pakisamahan,” said Dimaculangan, who is the oldest in the team that has an average age of 24.4 at 30 years old.
“Kasi hindi rin naging madali yung pinagdaanan ng team namin like ilang talo, yung morale namin sobrang baba. Naging challenge sa amin yung last three games, pinaghirapan din naman namin tsaka pinaghandaan namin para sa sarili namin at sa team namin,” she added.
For his part, PLDT head coach Roger Gorayeb was elated to see her young wards go down swinging in a league filled with big-name stars.
“Talagang bata pa talaga sila, ngayon pa lang kumbaga sa salitang kalye ngayon pa lang kami nagkakaamuyan e, ‘di ba? Ang tagal e,” rued Gorayeb.
“Sana nga napaaga pero sabi ko nga noon maganda yung future kasi puro bata sila, batang bata yung team e sana lahat maging pasensyoso muna sa team na ito kasi hindi naman ganun kadali mag form ng team tapos dalawang buwan practice pero ito na e ang ganda nang nilalaro nila e kaya masaya ako.”
With what they saw from the youth-laden squad, Gorayeb can’t help but be excited for the days to come.
But now that their season has ended, Dimaculangan, Gorayeb, and the rest of the young Power Hitters will get their much-deserved rest.
And they vow to come back wiser and stronger all thanks, of course, to the lessons that they picked up in this painful process that they hope can translate to something positive.
“Uuwi na kami, tapos magpapahinga kasi ECQ pa. Tignan ko kung kailan kami puwedeng mag practice, so ‘pag na lift yung ECQ mag start na kami kasi parang October yata yung next conference,” shared Gorayeb.
“Looking forward kami sa next conference hopefully meron para mas maganda yung maging performance namin. Kumbaga kahit papaano yung morale namin mataas entering next conference,” Dimaculangan ended.
