Akari Chargers in the PVL Reinforced Conference. –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net
Every game for Akari is an opportunity to be better and take a step closer to something it has never achieved before. And the Chargers are not planning on wasting that chance.
“We are on the way to what we want to achieve. We have a very good run so far [because] of teamwork and not making it a one-man show,” Akari mainstay Michelle Cobb said as the unbeaten Chargers go into the PVL Reinforced Conference playoffs as the No. 1 seed looking to show No. 8 Farm Fresh the door on Saturday at FilOil EcoOil Centre.
“We need to continue wanting it because we are already here and we have worked for this. All of us have the mindset of no turning back,” Cobb added. “Expect us to step it up a notch in the quarters … all of us will be focused on one direction.”
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While Akari is the overwhelming favorite in its 6 p.m. match with Farm Fresh, Cignal will battle surging Capital1 in the 4 p.m. game also in a you-or-me setting, with the second-ranked HD Spikers sure to have their hands full in trying to hold down the prolific Marina Tushova to avert an upset.
The Chargers will have import Oly Okaro as their main weapon, with support to come from the steady Gretchel Soltones and Ivy Lacsina, whom Cobb has been able to get involved every game because of her brilliant setting.
Okaro’s local support
But Akari is far from satisfied, and is looking to go all the way to cap a stint that started with a massive manpower shuffle in the off-season.
“This 8-0 [record] is only a part of the process. It’s not the ultimate goal,” Soltones, a new acquisition, said in Filipino.
Even if Okaro has been contributing solid numbers every game, Soltones and Lacsina have been chipping in big numbers as well.
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On the other hand, the Foxies barged into the knockout stage despite dropping its closing game—interestingly enough, against Akari—after crowd-darling Choco Mucho crashed out of contention on Thursday.
Even with a revamped coaching staff, Farm Fresh continued to struggle in this conference. The Foxies showed glimpses of brilliance, most notably in a smothering of Tushova a couple of weeks back.
But the Foxies are far from just rolling over against the heavy favorites even if they have already secured a franchise-best finish.
“If we look at [Akari] as the top one team, we will only feel pressured so we will only look at them on an equal level,” Trisha Tubu recently told the Inquirer in Filipino.
Meanwhile, the HD Spikers have had their share of disappointments in a long history of participation, so despite finishing with a 7-1 record in the elimination round, they are not going to be victims of misplaced confidence.
“Not too confident because whenever we become confident we become prone to complacency,” captain Ces Molina told the Inquirer in Filipino in a separate interview.
“The [standing] that we have right now is just a record—a knockout game is a knockout game and that record will have no bearing if we lose,” Molina said.