Savannah Davison believes that PLDT’s comeback will be much bigger than their recent setback after the High Speed HItters barely missed the Premier Volleyball League All-Filipino Conference semifinals for the second consecutive time.
PLDT, who ended up in fifth place for the third consecutive time, was poised to be one of the four teams to enter the round-robin semifinals after a stellar performance in the first half of the elimination round.
However, the High Speed Hitters suffered crucial losses during the final stretch, including a four-set loss against also-ran Cignal last Saturday in Santa Rosa, Lagua, which could have easily been their ticket to the semifinals had they won.
PLDT eventually got eliminated following Chery Tiggo’s five-set win over Galeries Tower last Saturday, despite scoring its first-ever victory over defending champion Creamline just hours later.
As painful as it is, Davison said that the team needed to experience such to be able to fully grasp how important every moment is and what needs to be done moving forward.
“I think the team needed this little one point to show us how big everything matters. Every set, it matters. Every point, it matters, and knowing that we’re good enough to be one of the top teams, but still not make it to the semis, it’s determination, it’s motivation, more likely,” Davison told Tiebreaker Times.
“I wouldn’t say I have any regrets because I feel like this is a lesson that we learned. Hopefully, we come out of it more positively at the next conference,” she added.
Davison said that she is very proud of what the team has done throughout the season-opening conference, which included big wins over Choco Mucho and the Cool Smashers.
“I think it just shows our hard work throughout the conference. No matter the ups and downs, we were always able to show up better the next day,” said the Filipina-Canadian spiker following their conference-ending win over Creamline.
“So I’m really proud of the group that we have this conference and I can’t wait to see what we do next conference,” she added.
Davison left it all out on the court against the reigning champions, firing a game-high 27 points, including 25 from attacks, along with 15 excellent receptions in the High Speed Hitters’ 22-25, 25-14, 25-22, 27-25 win over Creamline at the Philsports Arena.
It was the first time that PLDT beat the Cool Smashers since joining the flourishing professional volleyball league in 2021, ending an eight-game losing streak.
“Like Kath (Arado) said, we just had to give it our all since there’s nothing that we could lose. Thinking about it now, we beat the top two teams in the conference. It kind of shows a lot that when we show up, when we put our best out there, sky’s the limit,” she said.
“I think from that and just being able to show up without that motivation, that extra ‘we can get into semis’ (mindset). So knowing that and going into next season, using that and putting it forward, it’s gonna be really helpful in terms of adding that motivation and adding that determination knowing that we were capable of what we did tonight.”
