Three-time PVL Most Valuable Player Tots Carlos tipped her hat to the hard-fighting Farm Fresh after the latter gave defending champion Creamline a run for their money in a thrilling encounter to open their 2024 Premier Volleyball League All-Filipino Conference campaign.
“Farm Fresh really did a great job. They were defending well, they were attacking well. They did combinations, they did fast plays,” said Carlos after the win last Saturday.
The Cool Smashers were in control late in the opening set with a 24-22 lead before the Foxies came out of nowhere.
They sent the set to an extension before Creamline eventually stole it via an Alyssa Bertolano ace after 45 minutes of jam-packed action.
Creamline fended off Farm Fresh in the second and third frames. Then in the fourth, they finally ran away to complete the 34-36, 25-23, 25-22, 25-15 victory which extended their winning streak to 16 games.
“On our side naman, we had a lot of errors – like in the first set, I think we had 11. In the second we had 10, so back to basics pa rin starting with the pass, kasi shaky yung pass namin nung una,” said Carlos.
“Laging sinasabi ni coach na kaya namin kontrolin, kontrolin namin kahit sa anong skill – sa pasa, sa spike, sa emotions. Yun yung I think na kailangan namin iimprove, yung control namin sa lahat ng nangyayari sa game,” she added.
The Cool Smashers ended up with 31 errors in the match, equal to what the Foxies gave up in the two-hour, nine-minute contest.
Carlos finished with a game-high 19 points built on 17 attacks.
Meanwhile, Jema Galanza and Jeanette Panaga backstopped her with 15 and 12 points, respectively, in the victory.
She said that they expected Farm Fresh to be a force on the defensive end, which definitely showed in the extended opening set wherein they surrendered two set points en route to the 34-36 loss.
Carlos said that the defending champions need to go back to the basics and address the situation to prevent the same thing from happening moving forward.
“We really expected Farm Fresh to be that defensive team and yun, sabi ko nga depende pa rin sa sitwasyon. First set they really played well, ‘di pa namin nakapa pano kami magrerespond nang maayos,” she said.
“We’re really happy na maganda laro ng Farm Fresh but on our side we really need to do the basics more na mas maayos and adjust kung ano yung sitwasyon.”
