Petro Gazz’s Brooke Van Sickle in the PVL All-Filipino Conference against Choco Mucho.–MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — Brooke Van Sickle won the clash of the MVPs after pushing Petro Gazz past Sisi Rondina and Choco Mucho at the start the 2024-25 PVL All-Filipino Conference on Saturday.

Van Sickle, the reigning All-Filipino MVP, dazzled with 34 points and spoiled Rondina’s return following the Angels’ 25-20, 26-28, 25-21, 25-16 victory at Philsports Arena in Pasig.

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But Van Sickle couldn’t stop marveling at her fellow league MVP’s talent and resilience in their first duel since the 2024 All-Filipino with the Choco Mucho and Alas Pilipinas star missing the whole Reinforced Conference due to the national team period.

READ: PVL: Brooke Van Sickle powers Petro Gazz past Choco Mucho

“Sisi’s just Sisi. The first time that I ever played her, I just remember and I know other players have said this too, but she’s just phenomenal. She’s amazing. It’s just crazy. I remember she went hit a ball and I was sitting there like how’s someone so small jumping so high? It’s just impressive. She’s just a powerhouse. That girl has grit and determination,” said Van Sickle. “I’ve watched all the games when scouting. Even watching all the last conferences she doesn’t give up. Maybe she might have a slow start, but she doesn’t care. She’ll just come back. She’s just that kind of player, hats off to her I super respect her. She’s amazing.”

The Filipino-American spiker may have got the better of Rondina but she knows that the Flying Titans will come back stronger in the longest and biggest PVL tournament.

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“Today’s not their day but they’re gonna come back bouncing back so definitely we’ll see more of them for sure,” said the Petro Gazz star.

Van Sickle and the Angels missed the title round the past two conferences as they settled for bronze in the first All-Filipino this year when Creamline beat Rondina’s Choco Mucho in the finals. They also missed on a “three-peat” in the Reinforced, settling for sixth after a quarterfinal loss.

“ No one wants to lose but it just happens. We can’t go into the conference expecting to be like ‘Oh yeah, we’re gonna get number one without people pushing back.’ it is what it is. The last conferences, hats off to everyone, even like Creamline they got the Grand Slam, that’s awesome,” she said. “It’s good competition, really, and all we have to do is be able to learn from what happened and try to just move on. We can’t just dwell in the past. We can learn from it that we have to ultimately just move on from it.”

READ: PVL: MJ Phillips, Petro Gazz bank on chemistry in All-Filipino

Van Sickle said the Angels will take it one game at a time in the six-month-long conference, which will have a qualifying round and play-in taking place after a single-round robin, followed by best-of-three quarterfinals, semifinals round-robin, and best-of-three championship series.

“I feel like in long conferences you just have to take it game by game. It’s very long, and a lot of things can happen. The league is getting better as the conference goes on, you know there’s a lot of movement of players and everything, all are fired up to come back in the All-Filipino. It’s a long season, and things happen but we try our hardest to keep our bodies covered, that’s probably the biggest key really,” she said.

Van Sickle’s next assignment will be another tough one as Petro Gazz takes on defending champion Creamline next week at Ynares Center Antipolo.

“We can’t back down. With everyone, we got to come out with the same energy, same fire, for everyone. I know we play Creamline next and that’s gonna be very, very hard. We just got to come fired up and just see what kind of magic we can make work,” she said.