The Choco Mucho Flying Titans soared to a dream debut in the 2023 PVL Invitational Conference, demolishing the young Farm Fresh Foxies, 25-14, 25-7, 25-16, at the FilOil EcoOil Centre on Thursday, June 29.
Returning to indoor volleyball for the first time in four years, beach volley queen Sisi Rondina lived up to the hype and then some with a 14-point debut off 13 attacks and 1 block.
Caitlyn Viray, Rondina’s running mate back in their UST heyday, backstopped with 13 points, while setter Deanna Wong ramped up her scoring with 8 points off a game-high 5 aces to go with 8 excellent sets.
Unfortunately for Farm Fresh, their second game in three days looked significantly worse from the get-go, as Choco Mucho destroyed the Foxies’ morale with a massive 13-0 second set start, powered by alternating Wong aces and Rondina backrow bombs.
The rout worsened to a 16-point separation, 18-2, off another Rondina kill, which ultimately translated to a telling 6-0 start in the third set that Farm Fresh again never recovered from.
Rookie Trisha Tubu tried her hardest to salvage a respectable finish for her squad near the end, but an Isa Molde backrow kill followed by one last Rondina spike ended the Foxies’ futile comeback attempt for good.
“It’s a good game for our team because we saw our service receives working every set, which really dictated the tempo for us and got us going on defense and offense,” said Choco Mucho head coach Dante Alinsunurin in Filipino.
“Hopefully, we’re able to continue what we’ve started here.”
No Farm Fresh player reached double-digit scoring as Tubu limped to a 7-point finish, followed by 4 apiece from Kate Santiago and Zam Nolasco.
