Without any excess baggage, High Speed Hitters are moving on well

Rald Ricafort–MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

Months after a controversial loss that denied PLDT a chance to make the finals, the High Speed Hitters dealt Akari a bloodbath in their return meeting.

And the key to that as far as the High Speed Hitters were concerned was putting the past behind.

“We didn’t really put a lot of attention to that because that’s excess baggage,” coach Rald Ricafort told the Inquirer in Filipino after never giving the Chargers a chance on Sunday night, 25-22, 25-16, 25-15. “We wouldn’t have been able to focus [if we dwell on the past] so it’s better that we didn’t bring that to this game.”

Painful defeat

That excess baggage was a five-set loss in the semis of the Reinforced Conference five months ago, when the High Speed Hitters, at match point, called for a net fault video challenge on Charger Ezra Madrigal, which was later deemed unsuccessful. That led to the score being tied at 14-all before Akari eventually won.

“We forced ourselves to not have that extra weight on us,” Ricafort said.

There were a lot of talks ahead of the meeting of the two squads for the first time since that clash, but it turned into a one-sided affair as Akari, which missed a lot of firepower with Grethcel Soltones sidelined, was was never really in the game after a tight first set.

The High Speed Hitters have looked at what happened as a thing of the past, but the lessons they learned stayed.

“For sure, there are still memories of that game. But they are parts of the experience and learning,” Ricafort said. “We don’t have any other choice but to move forward. The focus of the team isn’t on anything less important.”

What’s important, it seems, is that PLDT snapped a two-game losing streak it ended last year with and got back on track to playoff contention.

Improved chemistry

“Our takeaway from those [losses] was that we became more whole as a team,” he said. “We had a lot of talks, players’ meetings and sessions after those two games and over the holiday break we got enough time to refresh, reset, gather and regroup.”

Those talks seemed to have helped PLDT improve their chemistry with young setter Ange Alcantara given the keys to the offense led by the prolific Savi Davison.

Another point of focus was handling tough situations with a united front instead of dealing with it in their own separate ways.

“It was really about getting into the right mindset—those two losses are not the end of the world,” Ricafort said.

“We were able to talk about going into just one direction and to stay with it so that we don’t have any more miscommunications,” he added. INQ