Sports

Patience Pays Off As Farm Fresh Finds Stability In Crunch Time

By RJ Ballecer - August 15, 2024

Farm Fresh isn’t done yet after an emphatic sweep over the Capital1 Solar Spikers that keeps their quarterfinal aspirations alive.

After dropping two close games, the Farm Fresh Foxies emphatically returned to form as they swept the red-hot Capital1 Solar Spikers. Capital1 came in with a four-game winning streak and became a marked team due to their meteoric rise to contention.

Farm Fresh was recently swept by Cignal and lost in four sets to PLDT.  Those sets were close, with the HD Spikers and High Speed Hitters only escaping by around two or three points. 

“‘Yung last two games namin, sobrang sakit kasi nandun na kami pero wala kaming ending. So ngayon super happy sa outcome ng team kasi natapos namin in straight sets,” reflected team captain and setter Louie Romero. 

Opposite spiker Trisha Tubu attributed the win to the Foxies’ patience. Coming close against top-ranked teams, it was only a matter of time before they broke through.

“Patience lang din namin sa sarili namin, sa bawat isa. ‘Yun nga, maganda ‘yung panimula namin, then ‘di namin ma-close ng maayos. Siguro yun nga, alam namin na nasa process na kami. And yung process na yun is maganda para sa amin sa mga susunod na conference, ‘yung patience talaga,” said Tubu. 

Equally impressive is Farm Fresh’s defense against Marina Tushova. The Russian was on a hot streak before Thursday, having reset the PVL scoring record twice. In between her 45 and 49-point efforts, Tushova also scored 32 points to end Pool B against Choco Mucho. 

Against the Foxies, Tushova was limited to 18 points. 

“Thankful kami sa coaching staff namin, grabe ‘yung pagaral nila para kay Marina. Then ‘yun nga, kami naman, nagtiwala lang din kami sa scouting nila, then nag-trust kami sa plan namin, nag-stick kami dun sa plan,” reflected Tubu. 

“Kaya yun, thankfully nakuha namin yung weight and na-stop namin si Marina kahit papaano.” 

With the win, Farm Fresh also stays in the quarterfinals hunt and has overtaken Choco Mucho as of writing. 

The Foxies will now wrap up their elimination rounds against undefeated Akari. It’s a whole new ballgame for Farm Fresh, who will go “back to zero” for the contest. 

“‘Yung mindset back to zero talaga eh, kasi kapag katinignan namin sila na nasa top [Akari] talagang mawawala kami.  So preparation lang talaga and back to training lang talaga kami,” said Romero.  

Banner Image courtesy of the Premier Volleyball League.

Related Stories