Brooke Van Sickle puts PVL on notice with impressive Petro Gazz debut

Petro Gazz Angels’ Brooke Van Sickle is the PNVF Champions League MVP. –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — Brooke Van Sickle sent a strong warning after a masterful first campaign with Petro Gazz in the Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) Champions League.

The Filipino-American spiker had a solid introduction to Philippine volleyball as she emerged as the Champions League Most Valuable Player after leading Petro Gazz to a title, two weeks before the 2024 Premier Volleyball League (PVL) season opener.

The Angels outlasted the erstwhile-unbeaten Cignal HD Spikers, 25-19, 27-25, 25-22, in the winner-take-all final on Saturday evening at Rizal Memorial Coliseum.

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For Van Sickle, her team showed what it could do under Japanese coach Koji Koji Tsuzurabara in the PVL All-Filipino Conference starting on February 20.

“I do believe that we’re a force to be reckoned with moving forward,” Van Sickle told reporters after dropping 20 points in the final.

“We’re slowly proving ourselves and we’re building confidence slowly as each day goes by. We’re building that team chemistry and everything.”

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But though she had a stellar debut with the Angels, the US NCAA Division I product believes that the best is yet to come for them as they brace for their major league in two weeks.

“There’s still more to come of what we’re working up. We’ve kind of touched the surface on it, but there’s a lot of cool things that Coach Koji wants to improve that we’re gonna still work on,” she said.

The former University of Hawaii stalwart is not contented with her championship and individual awards including the Best Outside Hitter in the PNVF as she is hungry for more in the pros.

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“As a player, my goal’s just to be consistent. I want to be there for my teammates. I just want to be a consistent type of player. I think that’s best —being able to be just a steady, consistent player,” said Van Sickle. “Knowing that I always have their back and they have mine, that’s my goal moving forward.”

The 24-year-old spiker credited their success to the whole team, which swept its two knockout games against Chery Tiggo in the semifinal and dealt Cignal’s only defeat in the tournament to emerge as champion after two years.

“It’s a build-up on our confidence. Moving forward, it just shows us that we are able do it. As long as we have our minds set, work hard every single day, we can get stuff done and I’m very proud our win,” she said. “Sweeping Cignal in three (sets), that was tough. To be able to have the mental focus to do that, that’s huge.”