BACARRA, ILOCOS NORTE — Chery Tiggo head coach Aaron Velez was lost for words on Sunday night after his Crossovers’ subpar outing in the Game One of the Premier Volleyball League Open Conference semifinals.
Chery Tiggo entered the semis with bragging rights over the Rebisco-backed squad.
A day before the playoffs, the Crossovers dispatched the Flying Titans via sweep to secure the second spot and drop the latter down the third spot.
Come the semifinals, however, all that was left in the past as Choco Mucho ran away with a 25-18, 25-22, 25-21 sweep over Chery Tiggo.
But for the youthful head coach, it was a bad day at the office for the Crossovers.
“To be honest, I was a little stunned,” said Velez after the loss to Choco Mucho.
“But it’s just a bad day probably.”
Dindin Santiago-Manabat was the lone bright spot for the Crossovers with a game-high 17 points. On the other hand, Jaja Santiago was held to just nine markers.
Cherry Tiggo also committed an average of 8.0 errors per set in the game.
And so on Monday, Chery Tiggo looks to work harder than ever to keep their season alive.
“Definitely we played very poorly. Credits to Choco Mucho they’re very aggressive, they were able to disrupt our passes. But for us, we just have to accept this day because tomorrow is going to be another game,” said Velez.
“Of course we have to be aggressive, we have to be more hardworking. We’ve already done so much just to simply throw it away. We’ll give them a good fight.”
