PVL: Humbled by two losses, High Speed Hitters connect by embracing imperfections, pressure

MANILA — PLDT libero-captain Kath Arado admitted that they were humbled by their first two losses to kick off their campaign in the 2026 Premier Volleyball League (PVL) All-Filipino Conference Siklab series. 

Recognizing their imperfections, Arado and the squad had to work hard to find their way up, hoping it would begin with a breakthrough win against Capital1, 21-25, 25-21, 25-21, 25-21, on Saturday at the Filoil Centre in San Juan.

“Hindi kami perfect na team, hindi kami perfect na players. May times na bad game, may bad day, pero ‘yun nga lagi kong nire-remind ‘yung bawat isa na hindi kami made-define dahil lang off kami, or off ‘yung isa sa ‘min,” said Arado, who expectedly led the floor defense against the Solar Spikers with 27 excellent digs.

For PLDT star Savi Davison, pressure molds a team, learning the lessons needed along the way.

“Pressure is a privilege and pressure makes diamonds. But at the same time, you just gotta calm yourself down and everyone has a bad day but let’s just kind of you know, mark more good days, hopefully,” said Davison, who took charge of the scoring with 28 points.

“It was humbling but I feel like we all go through those experiences where we don’t show up the best that we can and it’s just kind of how we respond from them so I like to identify it, recognize it and kind of move on because, you know, we need each other, right?” added the Fil-Canadian spiker.

“So, the best thing I can do is respond the best I can.”

Arado echoed Davison’s sentiment, saying that all teams go through rough times.

“So ‘yung nangyari sa ‘min nitong past two games, tama ‘yung sabi ni Sav na kailangan maging humble kami ulit, kailangan namin pagdaanan ‘to kasi lahat ng teams pinagdadaanan ‘to,” said Arado.

Moving forward, Davison hopes to show up more as the PVL field becomes more competitive.

“We weren’t surprised by the 0-2 start, but I think we had to realize that everybody was getting better and we had to follow the pace,” she said.

“We just knew that we had to start playing to our potential to make sure that we can compete amongst the best because the competition here in the Philippines is getting a lot better every conference and I feel like we just have to keep pushing ourselves to keep that pace too.”