Just when everyone thought she had already showcased her best, Brooke Van Sickle pulls out another big surprise that enabled the Petro Gazz Angels to slay a giant.
Van Sickle hit the reset button once again and set a career-high for the sixth time in her debut season in the Premier Volleyball League as the Angels essayed a cardiac five-set victory over defending champion Creamline on Saturday at the Santa Rosa Sports Complex.
The 26-year-old Filipino-American outside spiker unloaded 29 big points on 23 attacks, four blocks, and two aces, to go along with 20 excellent receptions and 12 excellent digs to help the Angels turn back the Cool Smashers, 15-25, 25-18, 24-26, 25-19, 15-13, in the season-opening All-Filipino Conference of the flourishing professional league organized by Sports Vision.
Van Sickle came up big for Petro Gazz especially in the decider, hammering down the crucial hits to finish with six points in the final frame and help her squad force a tie with Creamline at the second spot with identical 6-2 win-loss slates.
For her exceptional all-around performance that allowed the Angels to secure just their second win over Creamline in their past 19 matches, Van Sickle was named the seventh PVL Press Corps Player of the Week for the period of April 2 to 6.
“I would just focus on grit, really. It’s just grit, taking one point at a time, really. How I see it is it can go anywhere, really like you win just by a couple of points so we came on top this time so I’m proud of our team,” said the former US NCAA standout.
Van Sickle’s latest brilliance surpassed the 27-point performance she recorded last March 21 in a five-set loss to Chery Tiggo at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The 5-foot-9 outside spiker from University of Hawaii edged Majoy Baron of PLDT, Sisi Rondina of Choco Mucho, Jovelyn Gonzaga of Cignal, Ivy Lacsina of Nxled, and Dindin Santiago-Manabat of Akari for the weekly award deliberated upon by print and online scribes covering the league, which is also streamed live on www.pvl.ph.
Van Sickle, however, isn’t placing too much importance on her career-best performance against the Cool Smashers as she believes there’s still plenty of room for improvement for both herself and the rest of the Angels moving forward.
“It was a good win tonight and definitely we’ll celebrate, feel good about it. But once tomorrow hits, it’s a new day so we gotta keep not being satisfied and keep pushing. There’s a lot of things we have to improve on, we have to rest our bodies, recover,” said the reigning PNVF Champions League MVP.
“We have a long break, which we should be taking the opportunity [to rest]. Just take it day by day, keep pushing, keep working hard.”
