Cignal’s 2022 Premier Volleyball League Reinforced Conference campaign received a huge boost after middle blocker Ria Meneses finally made her much-awaited return on Thursday afternoon.
The reigning Open Conference Second Best Middle Blocker missed the HD Spikers’ first three games after dealing with issues on her knee.
In her first game back, Meneses scored seven points as Cignal scored a 25-23, 25-19, 25-19 win over United Auctioneers Inc-Army to end a two-game skid at the FilOil EcoOil Centre.
American import Tai Bierria said that Meneses’ return gives the team an added weapon as they look to build from their win against the Lady Troopers.
“We love Ria.
“We’ve been waiting for her to come back. She’s very focused, and very straight face but we love that energy. Very ‘give me the ball I’m gonna put this away’ and so having her back has been a big help not only in today’s game but in practices as well,” said Bierria, who finished with a game-high 17 points against UAI-Army.
Bierria also lauded Ces Molina and the rest of the HD Spikers’ bench for coming in and stepping up in the win against UAI-Army that put them at 2-2 in the standings.
“When Ces came in today and she came in and just dominated it’s so comforting and so helpful to me ’cause I’m not perfect,” said Bierria as Molina finished with 10 points despite playing just two sets.
“Just knowing we got a bench that’s deep, so deep and they can come in and contribute at any time is just like takes a lot of pressure off of me even though I like to keep going. Just shoutout to her, I’m her biggest cheerleader, and all the other girls who come in now and just can do the job well,” she continued.
Aside from Meneses’ return and the great production coming from the bench, the 6-foot-2 product of New Mexico University said that the postponed game against Choco Mucho gave the team the time to reflect after their back-to-back losses against Chery Tiggo and Creamline.
“I think we just got the chance to reflect and look back on what we did and tweak some things. Having a cancelled game against Choco Mucho kinda gave us extra time to prepare this one and so, leading up to it we really got time to sit down, look and make the changes that we want to,” said Bierria.
Cignal looks to continue its winning ways against Petro Gazz on Thursday at 2:30 PM.
