Petro Gazz has been making all the right moves lately, surging to six consecutive victories in the 2024-25 PVL All-Filipino Conference.
After falling to Creamline in their second match of the tournament, the Angels have been unstoppable.
They secured wins over Farm Fresh, Akari, PLDT, Cignal, Chery Tiggo, and, most recently, ZUS Coffee on Tuesday.
For Petro Gazz’s top scorer, Brooke Van Sickle, the team’s success stems from their unwavering focus and relentless effort in practice.
“Everyone’s doing a fantastic job. It doesn’t matter who it is on the team — everyone’s stepping up, everyone’s pushing themselves,” Van Sickle said after the Angels defeated the Thunderbelles in four sets.
She also emphasized the heightened intensity of their training sessions.
“Even the practice environment now — I always talk about that with MJ Phillips. I was like, ‘Wow, our practices are getting really intense.’ Not that they weren’t before, but now it’s just like a dogfight, basically,” she shared.
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Now holding a 7-1 record, the Angels are in prime position to close out the preliminaries on a nine-game winning streak. Their final assignments come against Capital1, Galeries Tower, and Nxled — three teams currently at the bottom of the standings.
However, Van Sickle and the entire Petro Gazz squad remain grounded, knowing that their recent string of victories is a product of their hard work and ability to stay locked in, regardless of the opponent.
“I feel like our coaches are definitely pushing us a lot, and they have high expectations for us. I feel like we’re also holding each other to high standards,” said the Filipino-American do-it-all spiker.
“We wanna win, and it’s gonna be hard. We have to try everything we can. I think everyone has that mentality — everyone’s stepping up, and everyone’s doing a fantastic job.”
At the end of the preliminary round, all 12 teams will be ranked based on the FIVB Classification system for the qualifying round, which will pair the No. 1 team against No. 12, No. 2 against No. 11, and so on.
Winners will advance to the playoffs, while the losing teams will drop to the play-in round, where only two of the six squads will secure the remaining postseason spots.
Petro Gazz is aiming for its first All-Filipino Conference title, having won both of its previous championships in the Reinforced Conference.
“It’s gonna be hard, but we’ll try our best,” Van Sickle expressed.
