Cignal HD Spikers overcome heavy feeling to regain footing

Cignal HD Spikers’ Dawn Macandili in the PVL All-Filipino Conference play-in tournament. –PVL PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — After losing their edge as the No.3 seed and being relegated to the play-in, Dawn Macandili-Catindig  and the Cignal HD Spikers chose to look at the bright side in the 2024-25 PVL All-Filipino Conference.

Getting upset by the No.10 Galeries Tower in the qualifying round was a tough pill to swallow for Cignal but the HD Spikers chose to face the rough road with courage and took care of business against the Capital1 Solar Spikers, 25-21, 22-25, 25-17, 25-15, in their first play-in game in Pool A on Thursday at Philsports Arena.

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Catindig, who protected the floor with 18 digs and seven excellent receptions, urged her teammates to keep going after the stunning loss to the lowly High Risers.

SCHEDULE: 2025 PVL All-Filipino Conference play-in tournament

“As one of the older players, it was a challenge to help them realize that we’ve still done some good things [last game]. But the ball is round, anything can happen,” the Cignal captain said in Filipino. “Coach and the team reassured us that there’s still a chance to make it to the quarterfinals. We just need to keep working hard.”

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Coach Shaq Delos Santos said the HD Spikers chose to  turn that upset loss as a fuel, hoping it light the fire under the team.

“That became our motivation, It felt heavy, but it’s the kind of thing you draw strength from to bounce back and recover. Honestly, it wasn’t easy for us. Those three days of training were different,” said the Cignal coach.

“This win was such a blessing because it’s exactly what we needed. It’s not about totally forgetting, but just taking it as a lesson learned and seeing how far we can go from here.”

PVL: Cignal bounces back with tough win vs Capital1, gets play-in edge

Ishie Lalongisip, who had 15 points and 10 receptions to backstop Vanie Gandler’s 21-point eruption, treated the play-in round as a room for improvement for the HD Spikers, needing to play more games to earn a spot in the quarterfinals.

“Instead of [looking at] negative [things], we became optimistic. We always tried to look at the brighter side of every situation because if we focus too much on the negative, nothing good will come from it,” Lalongisip said.

“It really was a blessing in disguise because it gave us more chances to play and learnhow to handle different situations that we can apply to other games moving forward.”

Cignal tries to lock the No.7 spot and the right to face Petro Gazz in a best-of-three quarterfinals series when it battles ZUS Coffee on Tuesday.

Catindig was proud of her teammates for staying together.

“Even though it’s a challenge and we have to go through the play-in, that’s the reality we have to accept,” she said.