Choco Mucho dug deep into its bag of tricks as it turned back PLDT in a marathon 25-27, 25-22, 18-25, 25-22, 17-15 victory in the Premier Volleyball League Reinforced Conference Thursday night, Oct. 20.
With import Odina Aliyeva playing exhausted, the Flying Titans went to Des Cheng late where she made some life-saving plays including a smashing block on Toni Rose Basas that sealed their second win in three outings.
Both Aliyeva and PLDT’s Elena Samoilenko were spent shells after pouring it all with 30 and 35 points, respectively.
But Aliyeva had the last laugh, thanks to Cheng and her other local teammates who delivered when they needed it most.
It also produced a hero in Kat Tolentino, who helped relieve Aliyeva with her attacking chores by chipping in 16 hits.
The game also saw the appearance of Madayag, who saw action for the first time since suffering an ACL injury in Bacarra, Ilocos Norte last year.
With Samoilenko leading the way, PLDT dictated the pace early and led, two sets to one.
But the 6-foot-4 Russian spiker breathed heavily and started to show signs of fatigue late, which was an opening Choco Mucho took advantage of in engineering a dramatic fight back.
The High Speed Hitters ended up absorbing their second setback against a win.