Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines—It was a tough start for a new look Sta. Lucia team in the Philippine Super Liga Grand Prix, but it was a beginning the Realtors were glad to be done with.
The Relators slugged through a brutal three-setter against PLDT Home ending in a 26-24, 25-23, 29-27 win for the ladies in green.
Shainah Joseph, the team’s foreign reinforcement in the conference, admitted the team felt the nerves of playing in their first tournament game.
“I think today we had a lot of nerves and it was our first game in the Grand Prix,” said Joseph Saturday at Filoil Flying V Center. “I think it’s just about, well we got the nerves tonight, and working on for our next games.”
The Realtors saw an influx of new players come to their team including Mika Reyes, Royce Tubino, Bang Pineda, and Djanel Cheng.
“You know, we have to be more cohesive as a team.”
Sta. Lucia and the Fibr Hitters figured in a slugfest of a third set with both teams trading blows like there’s no tomorrow.
The Realtors trailed in the latter stage of the third with PLDT holding fort with a 23-20 lead, but Sta. Lucia strung up enough offense to force the 23-all tie after MJ Phillips won the joust.
After several back-and-forth hits, Joseph found the spot to put Sta. Lucia up 28-27 before Maeva Orle’s final hit was ruled an error.
Joseph, who had 23 points, said they had similar instances during their exhibition games in the offseason and that prepared them well enough to stick it out until the very end.
“We were able to come back from 10-point deficits before so this was nothing new to us,” said Joseph. “We just have to focus on the serve, and I tell them to focus on this one thing and just a point at a time.”