Filipino-American winger Brooke Van Sickle fired loud warning shots to the opposition following Petro Gazz’s conquest of the Philippine National Volleyball Federation Champions League.
“I do believe that we’re a force to be reckoned with moving forward,” Van Sickle’s bold statement after the Angels clobbered Cignal, 25-19, 27-25, 25-22, in the one-game final Saturday night at the historic Rizal Memorial Coliseum.
The victory gave the Angels the much-needed morale boost and momentum heading into the Premier Volleyball League All-Filipino Conference unwrapping on 20 February.
“We’re slowly proving ourselves and we’re building confidence slowly as each day goes by. We’re building that team chemistry and everything,” Van Sickle said.
“There’s still more to come from what we’re working up. We’ve kind of touched the surface on it, but there’s a lot of cool things that Coach Koji (Tsuzurabara) wants to improve that we’re gonna still work on,” the University of Hawaii standout in the US National Collegiate Athletic Association Division 1 added.
Van Sickle blasted 20 points she collected from 18 spikes and two kill blocks to wrap up her roaring introduction to local volleyball following her signing with the Angels last month.
The 24-year-old winger displayed consistency throughout the weeklong tournament and showed great chemistry with Petro Gazz despite running under the system of the newly hired Japanese mentor.
Her outstanding performance earned her the Most Valuable Player award to go with the Best Open Spiker recognition.
“It’s just the cherry-on-top type of finish. I’m very proud of my entire team. I believe that we’ll be able to win. It’s just depending on if we came out firing, everyone absolutely did that today,” the former Big West MVP, Best Scorer and Best Outside Hitter said.
“I’m just so proud of everyone. Credit the coaching staff coming up with game plans that were super helpful. Individual awards are cool but I cannot have done that without all my teammates. They were super helpful the entire time, you know, having my back and being there for them, vice versa. I’m very proud of everyone.”
Tsuzurabara, who previously called the shots for the U-19 team of Kinh Bac Bac Ninh of Vietnam, lauded Van Sickle for quickly adapting and adjusting to the Filipino style of play and building connections with her teammates.
“She is the best at understanding many versions of the Philippine volleyball style. Everyone helped out with her adjustment,” the mentor said.
Jonah Sabete, who was named the other Best Outside Hitter, admired how Van Sickle’s arrival energized the club for a taste of once again winning a title.
