Jules Samonte had a roller-coaster month, experiencing a low that eventually turned into a high.
Last January 11, the 23-year-old middle blocker learned the news that Perlas will not be fielding a team in the 2022 Premier Volleyball League Open Conference.
But just eight days later, she was able to find a team in PLDT Home Fibr. And as a cherry on the top, the 5-foot-9 Atenean gets to play alongside Mika Reyes.
Samonte bared that ever since her days in La Salle-Zobel, she had always looked up to Reyes, who won three championships with the La Salle.
The two would never cross paths, though. Samonte entered Ateneo in 2016 – a year after Reyes’s final year in DLSU.
“I’m excited to play with Ate Mika because she is one of my first volleyball idols when I was in La Salle-Zobel. Back then, she was still with La Salle naman,” Samonte told Tiebreaker Times.
“Nung nalaman ko that she was going to play for PLDT, I was like, ‘Woah! Dati idol ko lang siya and now I’m going to be her teammate.'”
Reyes shared that she used to watch Samonte’s high school games and has felt impressed by her ever since.
“Nasusubayan ko siya nung early years niya in Zobel pero never ko siya naging teammate before,” said Reyes, who is five years older than Samonte.
“I’m also very excited kasi pareho kaming galing sa different programs.”
In her first pro season, Samonte shared that she still has a lot to learn, planning on absorbing knowledge from her more-experienced teammates as the games go by.
Ditto for Reyes, who can’t wait to learn a thing or two from Samonte.
“Ayun, ang saya lang na makasama ko siya sa pros,” closed Reyes.
