MANILA, Philippines – With star spiker Jovelyn Gonzaga in sickbay, Cignal head coach George Pascua sees it as a perfect opportunity to fire up his team in the ongoing Chooks to Go-Philippine Superliga Grand Prix.
Known for her fighting mentality, the national team member suffered a knee injury in the second set of their match against F2 Logistics late Tuesday at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.
The HD Spikers were trailing, 13-21, when she landed awkwardly on her right knee, leaving her grimacing in pain.
Coaching staff and medical personnel immediately attended to her and rushed her to the nearest hospital.
Since that unfortunate incident, the HD Spikers were never the same again as they went on to swallow yet another disappointing setback, 22-25, 13-25, 12-25.
But Pascua said instead of wallowing in sadness, the HD Spikers should take it as a motivation to come up with a strong finish in the single-round eliminations.
“This is a major challenge for us,” said Pascua, a superb motivator who was behind Petron’s historic 13-0 sweep of the All-Filipino Conference in 2015.
“This is the perfect time for us to step together and play as a team. We know Jovelyn really wants to win. She’s a fighter. We have to help her emotionally by winning this match for her.”
The Grand Prix is a roller-coaster ride for the HD Spikers.
After dropping their opening-day match to Foton, the HD Spikers prevailed over Generika-Ayala before losing to Petron.
Then, it was downhill from there as they lost two of their next three matches for a 2-4 mark entering their final two matches of the eliminations.
Pascua noted that they have to improve their playmaking and utilize all their spikers, especially middle hitters Beth Carey of Australia and Alexis Matthews of United States.
“But I trust Chie (Saet),” he said. “She’s a veteran and knows what to do in crucial situations. Maybe we just have to remind everyone to be ready so we can have very good ball distribution.”
Pascua stressed that at this point, all they need is to stay together and work hard for a strong finish — even without Gonzaga.
“We have to be united,” he said.
“We want to win it for Jovelyn.”