With Eli Rousseaux’s production limited, Trisha Tubu took over as Farm Fresh swept Cignal, 25-19, 25-20, 25-16, in the 2025 PVL Reinforced Conference on Thursday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The Foxies improved to 2-0 in Pool A, marking the first time in the franchise’s seven PVL conferences that they have started with back-to-back wins.
Belgian import Rousseaux still finished with 17 points but made only 13 of her 46 spike attempts, a significant drop from her 38-point debut last Thursday at the Dasmariñas Arena in Cavite.
Tubu, meanwhile, bounced back from a 10-point first game, connecting on 19 of her 32 attacks and adding two blocks for a total of 21 points against the Super Spikers.
(C) PVL Images
“I mean, first of all, we knew it would be for sure a difficult game, also because Cignal did not perform well clearly last Monday against Choco Mucho. So we’re prepared for their reaction,” said Farm Fresh head coach Alessandro Lodi.
“Already not having Gandler on the court clearly is a big help for us. I would always want the best lineup and all the best players to be on the court. This being said, we can only focus on what we can control and our side of the net, and I think we delivered a strong performance today,” he added, as Cignal star Vanie Gandler did not play due to an undisclosed minor injury.
Knotted at 9 in the third set, the Foxies pulled away with a 9-2 run, with Tubu scoring the last four points to secure the sweep in one hour and 29 minutes.
Ces Molina contributed 11 points in her first game against her former team, along with six excellent receptions.
Alohi Robins-Hardy delivered 24 excellent sets, while Alyssa Bertolano excelled in her new role as libero, recording 14 excellent digs and 10 excellent receptions.
Farm Fresh will aim to extend its best franchise start on Tuesday when it faces Capital1 at 1:30 PM at the Big Dome.
(C) PVL Images
Cignal, now 0-2, was also without head coach Shaq delos Santos, who is recovering from the flu in the hospital. Rico de Guzman served as acting coach for this game.
Greek reinforcement Eva Chantava led the Super Spikers with 13 points and seven excellent receptions, the only player to reach double digits on the losing side.
Cignal will continue its search for a first win on Tuesday against PLDT at 6:30 PM.
