Choco Mucho beat Rebisco, 22-25, 25-17, 25-19, 25-17, in a clash Wednesday (Oct. 6) of two national teams marked by a lot of fun and energy and foremost the needed international exposure.
“The game was really high energy. It was really a lot of fun to play,” Choco Mucho main woman Kalei Mau said.
Mau scored five points in every set to finish with 20 points in the qualification match of the 21st Asian Women’s Club Volleyball Championship Wednesday at Terminal 21 competition hall in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand.
“It was challenging playing against a younger team,” Mau added. “It was really great to be able to just find their tendencies and also work on ours and just work our creativity as a team.”
The victory was the first for Choco Mucho in the tournament. The wards of coach Arthur “Odjie” Mamon now have a chance to finish fifth if they can secure a win over Kazahkstan’s Zhetysu at 1:30 p.m. (Manila time) on Thursday (Oct. 7).
The loss, on the other hand, sent Rebisco to seventh place in the championship that was the first international exposure of the national teams since the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.
For Rebisco’s players, they lost nothing but gained everything in terms of exposure with some of them accomplishing their senior debut.
“We got to play with our veteran ‘ates [elder sisters]. It was really a very good experience for us younger girls and we have learned a lot,” Faith Nisperos said. “This experience has been a very good step for us, especially us college students.”
Mamon admitted the victory was bittersweet.
“Honestly, I didn’t want to beat Rebisco, I really wanted the younger players to have more experience in this tournament, to get more exposure,” he said. “But props to Mylene [Paat] and MJ [Phillips], they did a really good job today. Deanna [Wong] also controlled the pace of our offence today.”
Choco Mucho will be out to avenge its 22-25, 19-25, 15-25 loss to Zhetysu in the preliminaries.
