The Choco Mucho Flying Titans celebrate after beating PLDT in the quarterfinals. PVL Media.
MANILA, Philippines -- The Choco Mucho Flying Titans displayed tremendous mental toughness in battling past PLDT in the quarterfinals of the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) Open Conference.
This, according to head coach Oliver Almadro who was proud of the grit shown by his players after falling behind by one set against the equally determined High Speed Hitters.
"When we lost the two sets to one, I just told my players na it boils down to mental toughness, increased faith in themselves, and increased faith in the system, and in the team, their teammates," Almadro said.
"They did [that], kaya noong fourth set, medyo gumanda 'yung kilos nila. Luckily, the Lord gave us the strength, additional strength to win this game," he added.
The Flying Titans lost the third set in brutal fashion, squandering several set points and allowing the High Speed Hitters to take a 31-29 come-from-behind win. They showed great poise in the fourth set and were the more composed team in the decider, where they weathered a late PLDT charge to snatch the win.
Their 25-21, 23-25, 29-31, 25-15, 15-11 triumph propelled them to the semis, where they will take on sister team Creamline in a best-of-3 series.
Their tough stand in the fifth frame was indicative of their mental toughness, said Almadro, as they were able to overcome late errors and pull out the win.
"Madami din kaming unforced errors," he pointed out. "But as I've said, this is the playoff, this is the knockout game so darating at darating talaga 'yung pressure."
"I reminded my team to put up the mental toughness and put increased faith sa sarili nila, para bumalik 'yung confidence sa ginagawa nila," he added. "So good thing noong fifth set, na-minimize na namin 'yung error."
Game 1 of their semis series against the Cool Smashers is on Friday.