Choco Mucho Flying Titans’ Kat Tolentino during a PVL All-Filipino Conference game. –PVL PHOTO

At first glance, it would seem that Choco Mucho has been on a decline since consistently being a title contender in the PVL.

After back-to-back silver finishes behind sister team Creamline last season, the Flying Titans suffered injury issues while Sisi Rondina and Cherry Nunag were loaned to the national team duties as Choco Mucho crashed in the All-Filipino—a free fall that import Zoi Faki failed to arrest in the Reinforced Conference.

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They got everyone back for this season’s All-Filipino Conference.

But even with Kat Tolentino and Des Cheng now healthy and Rondina and Nunag back in harness, Choco Mucho lost its match against Brooke van Sickle and the Petro Gazz Angels. It was enough to cause alarm among the team’s followers.

It was, however, also just their first game.

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“I think we just have to adjust,” Tolentino said of the team’s recent string of bad luck. “It’s [our team’s] first game so we can’t lose hope or feel like this is how it’ll be for the [rest of the All-Filipino] Conference.”

The adjustment comes with the Flying Titans losing Maddie Madayag, who opted to play overseas, and Deanna Wong, the enigmatic setter nursing a knee injury.

“It’s good to [suffer losses] at the beginning so that we can learn from it and we can fix what we need to fix,” Tolentino, who despite still not being 100 percent pitched in 12 points in her first game since her return, said. “I know I can give more.”

Turned a corner?

Tolentino said the absence of Madayag may be telling, but she also sees it as an opportunity for others to fill in that role.

“It’s [feels] different for me. I’m so used to playing with [Madayag] as the middle,” Tolentino said. “But I also got used to playing with the other girls so it’s nice to see our rookie Lorraine [Pecaña] step up and fill her position.”

Tolentino and the Flying Titans are hoping they have turned a corner after a tough victory over Galeries Tower, 27-29, 25-20, 25-19, 17-25, 15-12, on Thursday.

“We’re a fighting team,” she said after the match, after unleashing 20 kills and scoring off seven blocks for a team-high 27 points.

Pecaña had a key moment in the game, scoring off two crucial blocks, the second of which gave Choco Mucho breathing space, 12-10, after Galeries rallied from three down to come within a point.

Cheng knocked in a key ace while Rondina pushed the Titans to match point before closing out the win—both off her trademark powerful spikes.

“Since I’ve been with Choco Mucho [in the] beginning I’ve seen how it’s evolved and I know that we have to kind of fail or lose in order to win,” the former Ateneo star, one of the longest-tenured players on the team, said. “I’ve gone through many Choco Muchos where we’ve lost … Choco Mucho has come so far since when I first started so I’m just gonna keep working hard.”