BACARRA, ILOCOS NORTE — Aside from keeping Choco Mucho’s slate clean, Ponggay Gaston had another motivation in mind during their match against BaliPure.
This, as after two long, grueling months of playing the sport that she loves — Gaston can finally see an actual loved one inside the PCV Socio-Civic and Cultural Center here.
Last Thursday, Games and Amusements Board consultant and Ponggay’s father Fritz was part of the GAB delegation headed by chairman Baham Mitra that arrived here at Ilocos Norte to visit the Premier Volleyball League.
Gaston and the rest of GAB were in the Ilocos bubble to inspect whether the health and safety protocols are being properly implemented by the league.
And the young Gaston made sure to be at her best for her father to witness.
“Nag inspire siya sa akin, of course.
“Siyempre nami-miss ko rin yung family ko. So seeing him here today, it made me happy to see him and it made me really miss my family — especially my dog,” said the 23-year-old Gaston after Choco Mucho’s four-set conquest of BaliPire on Friday.
“Inspiration siya for me siyempre to do my best for the people at home,” she expressed.
Ponggay — who has been one of the constant forces that kept Choco Mucho with a clean standing — was the third best scorer for the Flying Titans with eights points.
Choco Mucho went on to take a four-set, 25-23, 23-25, 25-15, 25-21 victory over the pesky BaliPure.
Definitely, the Flying Titans want to win this one to make their sacrifices worth it.
“All of us I think we haven’t seen our family for almost two months na since the bubble started,” bared the 5-foot-8 hitter as the Rebisco teams also trained inside a bubble in Clark prior to the tournament.
“We haven’t seen them in so long.”
With the team piping hot, Gaston hopes that they can continue their fine play as they head to the crucial stretch of their schedule where they will be facing Creamline, Chery Tiggo, and Petro Gazz.
“We’re really glad that we won,” said the 5-foot-10 spiker out of Ateneo. “We’re gonna take the win because a win pero from the looks of our performance we know na there’s still so many things na we need to work on, that we need to improve on inside and outside of the court.
“So we’re gonna use this game as a lesson para makapagangat pa kami ng laro kasi siyempre palakas nang palakas yung laban ngayon,” she continued as they had a lot of errors in the contest.
“We still have how many games so this game will not define us and yung mga standings namin di yun nagde-define sa amin kasi siyempre ichachallenge at ichachallenge kami ng mga kalaban so we’re gonna improve and keep accepting.”
