PVL: Challenged by coach, Jovielyn Prado flaunts scoring chops

MANILA, Philippines—PetroGazz had relied mainly on its middle attackers for its offensive firepower for the first parts of the Premier Volleyball League Open Conference but a change of pace took place in its latest match.

The Angels shut down Pacifctown-Army, 25-15, 25-15, 25-19, Wednesday and most of the points came from their wing spikers in Jovielyn Prado, Paneng Mercado, and Jonah Sabete.

Prado finished with 12 points while Mercado and Sabete had nine points apiece.

Angels head coach Arnold Laniog wanted to challenge his wing spikers to produce the points and relieve middle attacker Jeanette Panaga some of the offensive burden.

“I wanted to challenge my heavy hitters like Jovielyn, Paneng, Sabete, because our middles can produce points in double digits every game and as much as possible I want them to do the same,” said Laniog in Filipino.

Prado gave herself some sort of a redemption arc after getting relegated as a pinch server during the Reinforced Conference with guest players Janisa Johnson and Wilma Salas taking the bulk of the offense.

“I accepted coach’s challenge because he told us that we don’t have anyone to rely on because we’re the ones playing inside the court,” said Prado. “We’ll give him what he expects from us.”

Panaga, who had 13 points against Army, is still the Angels’ leading scorer with 12.3 points a game but Prado made some strides bumping her scoring average to 9.3 from 8.3.

Mercado and Sabete also had decent scoring averages after the Army game at 8.5 and 7.3 points a game.

“I’m expecting to score more points now because our imports were really big for us and if I don’t work hard I’m sure I’ll be falling deeper into the offensive rotation,” said Prado.