ZUS Coffee and Farm Fresh have been making waves in the PVL Reinforced Conference so far.
The Thunderbelles stunned the Creamline Cool Smashers on Thursday with a 25-27, 25-17, 25-20, 25-22 conquest behind Anna DeBeer’s 37 points for a 3-0 lead in Pool B.
On Tuesday, the Foxies extended their best franchise start and remained as the lone unbeaten squad in Pool A after Eli Rousseaux dropped 36 to beat Capital1, 25-22, 22-25, 25-21, 25-22.
ZUS Coffee coach Jerry Yee, who also had a coaching stint with Farm Fresh, doesn’t seem surprised by the performance of the two rising clubs after investing on recruitment that included signing prolific reinforcements in DeBeer and Rousseaux. DeBeer and Rousseaux have merged as the tournament’s Best Scorers with 92 and 91 points, respectively. ‘We have to [win]. Because the management gives us great support, so we need to give back. They provide everything we need, so there’s no excuse not to step up,’ said Yee, whose squad was coming off breakthrough playoff appearances in the All-Filipino and PVL on Tour.
Yee sees DeBeer as a perfect fit for ZUS with locals led by rookie AC Miner, setter Clo Mondoñedo, Thea Gagate, Riza Nogales, veterans Jov Gonzaga, Fiola Ceballos, and Alyssa Eroa.
‘It’s Anna. We’re lucky to have someone we can really rely on. Having a teammate like her builds our confidence, and it helps everyone play better. Everybody’s stepping up, especially Anna,’ he said.
Farm Fresh, meanwhile, appears to have found the right man at the helm in Italian Alessandro Lodi after several coaching changes.
Lodi continued to bring out the best in three-time Best Opposite Spiker Trisha Tubu and tapped rookie but seasoned setter Alohi Robins-Hardy while adding another reliable scorer in Ces Molina to create a potent offensive combo with Rousseaux.
‘[The growth is] tremendous. That was the plan and the project to work really for five months. As we talked about during the summer, it was for many people kind of learning the game from scratch, making a lot of changes. And that was the process that was needed in order to try to become contenders at the higher level,’ said Lodi.
‘It was not easy. We went through ups and downs because, of course, these processes take time and one day you do well and the next day it looks like you never played volleyball before. But the players always understood that. They bought in right away. That’s one thing.’