Pocari Sweat. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Better off without a superstar.
That, in a nutshell, was how Pocari Sweat coach Rommel Abella summed up the Lady Warriors’ successful Shakey’s V-League Season 13 Reinforced Conference title conquest Monday night.
Abella, who is also boys’ team mentor for University of Santo Tomas, described his team as “a bunch of gritty warriors ready to step up.”
Playing their roles to the hilt were Michele Gumabao, Myla Pablo, Desiree Dadang and imports Breanna Mackie and Andrea Kacsits.
Against crowd-favorite Customs, Pocari employed just one brilliant strategy: Contain three-time Most Valuable Player Alyssa Valdez.
The Lady Warriors did that well enough to sweep the Transformers in their best-of-three final series.
“I think we just focused on her because she was the one who brought her team up,” said Pocari team captain Gumabao, referring to Valdez.
The 23-year-old superstar was limited to 12 points in Game 1 and 10 in Game 2.
“We focused on defending her (Valdez) that we forgot about Kuthaisong, who played her best game,” said Gumabao.
Pocari lost its conference opening game to Air Force, but won the next eight games for its second title of the season.
It also ruled the Open Conference last June.
“We’re practically bringing back almost the same cast next season so expect us to go for a third title,” said Pocari team manager Eric Ty. “I’m looking at several players who we could add to the team and could make us stronger.”