Paat puts Chery Tiggo in list of favorites—with a little help from the hitter formerly known as Ponggay

Chery Tiggo showed little signs of what was missing in the offseason. Crossovers, in fact, show what they achieve.

Mylene Paat dominated with 26 points as Chery Tiggo remained unbeaten after two games by beating Army-Black Mamba, 25-21, 23-25, 25-16, 25-12, in the 2023 Premier Volleyball League All-Filipino Conference on Saturday at Philsports Arena.

Paat’s scoring prowess has helped the Crossovers transition following the departure of star Dindin Santiago-Manabat, but the veteran spiker refuses to hog the credit for the team’s fast start in the conference so far.

“I wouldn’t have gotten those points without the help of my teammates,” he said.

Help came from regulars EJ Laure and Cza Carandang, who scored 12 points apiece, but also plenty of contributions came from newcomer Pauline Gaston, an outside hitter who is making a comeback after shedding the nickname “Ponggay” in college. year.

“[In this game] our opponents have to be wary of Pauline, the midfielders and the rest of the team because the ball is well distributed,” added Paat.

Gaston, who left Choco Mucho to join Chery Tiggo, finished with eight points and is happy to find a place with the team.

“I’m home,” he said.

“We have a lot of confidence in each other and ate Mylene and coach Aaron have confidence in all the players,” added Gaston. “If you pay attention, anyone can play [into the game]. And that was the plan, whoever was called had to deliver.

“And I’m glad that everyone who played played and delivered well.”

All-around performance

Paat, the team’s captain, ]released an all-around performance when he trained 22 attacks and four blocks on top of 12 digs to push the Crossovers into a tie with the idle Creamline Cool Smashers at the top of the standings and confirm the team’s worth as a favorite title of this conference.

“We have to take experience. I think this experience means we have to be more consistent. I said before that we have to trust each other,” said Velez. “Before, they played as individuals. But when they worked as a team, starting with the reception and then with our good playmakers setters, our spikers sent. So more than cohesion and communication that we always do.

After taking the opening set, Chery Tiggo couldn’t come back in the second as the 20-22 deficit turned into a 22-all tie. But Army spiker Jeanette Villareal stopped the bleeding and an attack error from Carandang to reach set point, 24-22, before Royse Tubino scored a spike off the block to tie the match at one set apiece.

Crossovers quickly came into action with Carandang, Laure, Paat and Gaston dominating the last two sets, especially in the fourth set, where they came back from a slim lead of 11-9 and made a good 22-10 margin and never looked. back.

Army, which is starting a new era under new coach Randy Fallorina, lost its first game of the season and saw its alarming 14-game slump since last year’s Conference Invitational playoffs.

Tubino led the Lady Troopers with 16 points off 14 attacks and two blocks to go along with 15 receptions, but the team surrendered 28 turnovers in the game.

Villareal finished with 12 points in the first game as the opposite spiker, filling the big shoes of Jovelyn Gonzaga, who skipped the tournament because he played in Southeast Games beach volleyball but cheered the team behind the bench.

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