Rebisco team during practice ahead of the 2021 AVC Asian Women’s Club Volleyball Championship. PHIL VOLLEYBALL PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Not having a lot of time playing together definitely poses a challenge for Aby Maraño and her Team Rebisco the 2021 AVC Asian Women’s Club Volleyball Championship.
But while the competition in Thailand is expected to be difficult, Maraño and her team are not just in it for the victories but also for the experience.
“The team’s expectation is to have a solid exposure so that we can grow since most of the players in the team are young,” said Maraño in Filipino.
“We don’t exactly know what the other teams are capable of because we haven’t played against them, but we will just focus on what we can do as a team and we expect that we will be able to deliver what we learned from training with our Brazilian coach Jorge [Edson Souza de Brito].”
Some behind-the-scenes look on Team Rebisco and Team Choco Mucho's training ahead of the 2021 AVC Women's Club Volleyball Championship.
Action starts TOMORROW. For more info, visit https://t.co/Y5Tu4VAvOP pic.twitter.com/oFeZXHbpq9
— Volleyball Philippines (@volleyball_phi) September 30, 2021
Rebisco and Choco Mucho–the other Filipino team playing on the women’s side–are made up of national volleyball team prospects. Both teams will play their opener on Friday.
Maraño, the captain of the Rebisco, won’t be alone in the veterans’ department as she has fellow internationals Dindin Santiago-Manabat and Rhea Dimaculangan helping her out.
There’s also Eya Laure who already has experience at the international level.
One of the team’s young stars is National University’s Mhicaela Belen who, at 19-years-old, will make her international debut.
“I’m excited to play because, first, I did not expect I would be part and playing in this kind of tournament because of the pandemic,” said Belen. “I’m also excited to get more knowledge and I always get giddy just by thinking that I’m playing for the country again.”
“It’s such an honor to have a chance to prove that the Philippines can also keep up with other countries when it comes to playing volleyball.”
Rebisco is bracketed in Pool B, which also has Thailand’s Supreme Chonburi, Kazakhstan’s Altay and Iran’s Saipa.