Choco Mucho Flying Titans: Embracing Silver Linings
Enduring the pain of another PVL bridesmaid finish, Choco Mucho captain Maddie Madayag takes in the positives amid the Flying Titans’ ongoing maiden title pursuit.
Choco Mucho’s Ongoing Journey
Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. That has been the situation of the Choco Mucho Flying Titans after settling for their second straight PVL All-Filipino silver finish following another finals series sweep at the hands of mighty sister team Creamline Cool Smashers.
Down three key cogs in Des Cheng, Aduke Ogunsanya, and Kat Tolentino, the shorthanded title challengers poured their heart into the best-of-three series, but just fell short after a five-set Game 2 loss to cap off the conference.
Looking Towards the Future
With a new set of silver medals came new silver linings, however, as Choco Mucho captain Maddie Madayag beamed at the idea of a fully healthy Flying Titans roster in the near future.
“I’m very excited especially once our teammates get back. Hopefully they can return by the end of this year. I’m not sure about the timeline, but I’m still really excited for their return,” she said in Filipino.
“I’m still very proud of the team, especially since a lot of us went down. The coaches, especially when Kat went down, didn’t expect us to sweep the semifinals, but like I always say, if one of us goes down, another will step up to fill in the gaps. I’m very happy with the run even though we fell short again. I’m so proud.”
Team Effort and Resilience
Step up, the remaining Flying Titans did, as the likes of Royse Tubino, Maika Ortiz, and Isa Molde did what they could to replicate their injured trio’s missing production, to satisfactory results.
Tubino, in particular, was a woman on a mission, as once Tolentino went down, she became Choco Mucho’s clear secondary scoring option behind former MVP Sisi Rondina despite only playing sparingly as a new recruit in the Flying Titans’ first few games of the conference.
Looking Ahead
With two more conferences coming for the 2024 season, Madayag is confident that Choco Mucho’s maiden PVL title pursuit will continue to be a worthy and attainable endeavor in the foreseeable future.
“We come so far from where we started [in 2019],” continued the Flying Titans’ pioneering player. “Now we have two finals experiences that we can bring to the team. We’ve matured so well already from the times when we were younger.”
“We’ve come so far and I’m just so proud of where we are right now.”
