Choco Mucho is slowly embracing a winning culture as it looked poised to go deep in its campaign in the Premier Volleyball League Invitational Conference.
The crowd-drawing Flying Titans have turned into legitimate title contenders after a couple of dominating wins in the mid-season tournament.
Energized by the arrival of high-flying, power-hitter Sisi Rondina, Choco Mucho easily hurdled expansion teams Farm Fresh and Foton to take the top spot in the stacked Pool B.
The Flying Titans share an identical standing with F2 Logistics but the Dante Alinsunurin-mentored club took the lead due to a higher set ratio for not dropping a single set.
Choco Mucho inched closer to a semifinal seat after preying on the hapless Tornadoes, 25-19, 25-19, 25-14, Saturday behind Rondina’s 19-point explosion at the FilOil EcoOil Centre in San Juan.
“We are slowly learning how to win, which we really wanted to happen,” Alinsunurin said after his team’s great showing heading into a 10-day ceasefire of hostilities.
“We’re taking it step by step. Every game is a must-win.”
The Flying Titans are off to their best start since Alinsunurin took over the coaching reins in the season-opening All-Filipino Conference early this year.
‘We are slowly learning how to win, which we really wanted to happen.’
“I would say that we’re gradually learning how to execute all our gameplan during training. We’re getting better in everything that we do,” Alinsunurin said.
The mentor made a lot of changes in his star-studded roster and his gambit proved to be an effective move earning dividends for Choco Mucho.
For two games, Alinsunurin favored starting Rondina and Des Cheng at the open spot with Caitlin Viray taking over the opposite spot from Kat Tolentino.
Team captain Bea de Leon also took a back seat with Alinsunurin inserting a fully-recovered Maddie Madayag and Cherry Nunag as partners in the middle blocker position.
“For me, this is what we trained for. I have full trust in our players that we field inside the court,” he said.
“I always tell them that what is important to me is to utilize the player we see effective in a given situation.”
The league will have a 10-day break to give way to the country’s hosting of the Men’s Volleyball Nations League starting 4 July at the Mall of Asia Arena.
However, Alinsunurin will use the ceasefire to keep his wards ready for the coming battles.
“We’ll just take a rest on Sunday but it’s back to practice on Monday,” Alinsunurin said as he doesn’t want his players to lose momentum.
“It’s important that we keep our players in condition. The reason why we’re playing the way we play now is because of the conditioning that we do. We try to get them ready everyday.”
