By: Ohmer Bautista
Lady Trooper Alina Bicar is steadily making her impact felt in PacificTown-Army’s system.
Coming off a Finals appearance with the UST Golden Tigresses a couple of weeks ago, wherein the 5-foot-6 setter had shown that she can perform under the bright lights of the big stage, Bicar is slowly carving her niche in her new club team.
On Sunday, Bicar delivered her best performance so far in the PVL Reinforced Conference, tossing 26 excellent sets on top of 10 huge points – a volleyball double-double outing made much sweeter by PacificTown’s escape act against BanKo Perlas that tightened the Lady Troopers’ grip of solo third at the end of the first round.
“Nag enjoy lang kami sa loob,” the soft-spoken playmaker beamed.
Another barometer than one can look at to gauge Bicar’s playmaking proficiency in the PacificTown-BanKo tiff is how her spikers flourished offensively. In this case, three Lady Troopers barged into the double-digit territory as Jenelle Jordan pummeled 23 points while Olena Lymareva-Flink and Honey Tubino hammered 19 and 16 markers, respectively.
Playing with these veterans, the 20-year-old knows that there’s pressure. But she is using this opportunity to play with her heroes as her way to improve.
“Siyempre ‘yung pressure nandoon,” she bared.
“Pero tiwala lang sa teammates lalo na sa mga imports din.”
But before the rainbow has shone over her, Bicar had to go through the storm. She has had her fair share of setbacks as a playmaker. However, she never looked at her mistakes as a way to hamper her growth.
Instead, she admittedly has been using it as a way to get better.
“Siyempre po natututo ako sa mga mali,” she gushed. “Sabi nga ni coach [Kung Fu Reyes], kailangan kung ano ‘yung mali mo, kailangan itama. Kung ano man ang pagkukulang mo, kailangan mo punan.
“And nagtiwala lang ako sa sarili ko.”
After her impressive setting job, the native of Basey, Samar could not help but look back on the hardships that she had to hurdle entering the team’s practices fresh off her stint with UST.
“Noong andoon sila, hindi ako nakapag training muna kasi nagyu-UAAP pa kami. Bago palang ako doon, nagta-training na sila,” she recalled.
“Hindi naman sila madaling i-adjust at basahin, pero as a setter, ‘yun ang trabaho mo e. Kailangan mong alamin kung ano ‘yung gusto ng spiker mo, ‘yung gusto niyang bola para makapalo sila ng maayos.”
