When the Philippine women’s national team tucked back-to-back wins in the 2022 PNVF AVC Cup for Women on Thursday after a huge win over South Korea, no less than its captain and setter Jia De Guzman was proud of the achievement.
Just a few weeks ago, the squad, playing as the professional club team Creamline, had to scrape past the challenge of the other teams in the Premier Volleyball League to get the back-to-back title this season with the Invitational Conference plum.
The year before that, this very same squad also had to be away from their loved ones as they needed to tackle that season in a bubble system.
And just minutes after winning the Invitational Championships, the squad needed to shed its pink-and-blue colors for the blue-and-red of the Philippines as they took on the challenge of representing the country in this Cup.
De Guzman charged those wins, so far, in this competition to the well-established system the club has.
The six-time PVL Best Setter noted, “Sobrang saya namin kasi we sacrificed a lot for this whole year, actually for the past years. And it just goes to show na it’s easier to achieve things when you’re training in a system, a long-term program, and everyone believes in the system talaga. And everyone’s really disciplined and all our hard work is bearing fruit now.”
As such, head coach Sherwin Meneses had that trust that whoever he puts on the floor will deliver for the side. Meneses was sure right on that as he saw the likes of Rizza Mandapat, Pau Soriano, Rose Vargas, and, particularly, rookie Lorie Bernardo make it count for the Nationals.
Bernardo ended with three points on one block and two service aces, all of which came from that close-out third set.
“We’re really happy kasi we’ve seen how mature she is in training. If meron mang sobrang mag-overload sa ‘ming lahat, it’s her,” the former Ateneo playmaker shared of Bernardo’s work ethic. “Sobrang hinahabol niya ‘yung skills niya; she wants to be at par with all of us. And kami rin, we’re trying to be on par with her energy that she brings to the team. So, we’re happy that she played a great game also today.”
Soriano and Vargas were also able to put up two points apiece.
Thursday was a make-or-break day for Morado and company, and despite going up against a younger South Korean side, the Philippines just did what was needed to be done to eventually surpass their record from the 2018 edition of the Cup.
“We also had a fair share of games of going up against the older teams. We were a young team before also, and we know what kind of energy they bring. We watched the games they played. Kahit na down two sets sila, same pa rin yung energy nila at lumalaban sila. So, alam naming hindi dapat kami magpabaya sa kanila,” the 27-year-old standout shared.
Now that the monkey is off its back, the squad will look to make the most of its passage into the knockout rounds.
And on its tracks is a familiar foe in Southeast Asian rival Thailand.
Nonetheless, no matter what happens De Guzman believes that the PWNVT will do its best to represent the flag well come Saturday.
She said, “We know naman na juggernaut talaga ang Thailand pero naniniwala kami sa system namin, regardless, whatever the results are when we go up against Thailand. We know na learning experience siya and we’ll do our best going up against Thailand.
“Well, everyone saw how they played in the VNL. They are a very strong team; they went up against the strongest teams in the world. So, hindi sila basta-basta. They are a young team and they are very cohesive as they were playing for years. Hindi dapat kami magpabaya ng basta-basta.”
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