In their debut loss against the Creamline Cool Smashers, Motolite made to just four excellent sets in the entire match.
This time around, the Power Builders managed to overcome their rusty start and tallied a total of 25 assists in their straight-sets victory against the Chef’s Classic Red Spikers.
And they have veteran setter Iris Tolenada to thank for that.
“You have to move on from whatever happened before and just focus and stay in the moment,” recalled Tolenada about their disappointing outing.
The 5-foot-8 Filipino-American setter dished out 15 of Motolite’s 25 sets to go along with her three markers. Besides her superb playmaking, Tolenada also provided Motolite with a leader whom they can turn to in testing times.
“Malaking bagay sa’min si Iris sa loob ng court kasi andoon yung leadership niya; kasi halos lahat naman, si Iris kinakausap naman yung mga teammates namin kung anong gusto mong set, mataas ba or mababa,” said Motolite skipper Myla Pablo.
“Yun yung ano namin kay Iris… Kasi nandoon yung leadership niya sa loob ng court.”
On the other hand, the decorated playmaker shrugged off the praise. She deflected the credit to her teammates for sticking to the coaching staff’s game plan.
“I thought Myla did a fantastic job. That’s the Myla that everybody knows. It’s really cool to see her bring that out again. Ayel [Estrañero] did an awesome job at being libero today. Even [Bern] Flora came in and did very well. Her passing was on point today and even her attacking also. I think Tots [Carlos was good] at taking big swings and her serving was amazing today,” deflected Tolenada.
“We just worked more as a team this time. And like I said before, we stuck to the coaches’ game plan and we just worked a little bit together today.”
Despite already playing at a high level against newcomers Chef’s Classic, Tolenada vowed that the team would continue to improve.
“We still, obviously, have a lot of work to do, but that will come throughout training and our plan is to just keep getting better,” said Tolenada.
“Well the women’s game, in general, is serve and pass and who can win the long rallies. So that’s the whole women’s game. That’s what we all have to improve on.”
