MANILA – Choco Mucho Flying Titans-Philippines rallied back from two sets down to beat South Korea’s Suwon City, 16-25, 22-25, 25-19, 25-17, 15-11, in the 2023 VTV Cup on Wednesday night at the Lao Cai Gymnasium in Vietnam.
The victory, which served as the Philippine representatives’ bounce back from a meltdown against Vietnam 2 on Tuesday, clinched a semifinals seat for them with their 3-2 win-loss slate.
From a 9-all score in the fifth set, the Flying Titans took a 10-9 lead on an attack error by Suwon City’s Yuni Choi before Cherry Ann Rondina scored back-to-back hits for a 12-9 advantage.
Yuni made up for her mistake with a scoring block to pull Suwon City to within 10-12, but a net violation by Yu-Li Jeong and another error on their side send Choco Mucho to a matchpoint at 14-10.
Young-In Yoon kept Suwon City alive in the next possession after scoring a block against the Choco Mucho but Rondina responded with a block of her own to seal the victory for the Flying Titans.
The Flying Titans struggled in the opening set as they saw Suwon City turn an 8-all score to a 21-13 spread behind the contributions of Yeon-Jae Lee, Hyun-Ji Kim, and Do-Ah Kim.
In the second set, the Flying Titans found themselves trailing 20-22, but Rondina’s powerful hits brought them within one point at 22-23. Nonetheless, Suwon clinched a 2-0 lead over Choco Mucho.
Choco Mucho made a remarkable comeback in the third set, securing a narrow 17-15 advantage before Rondina initiated a 5-1 surge that left the Koreans trailing at 22-16. Deanna Wong and Cherry Nunag then sealed the set to get their team on the scoreboard.
The same intensity carried into the fourth set as the Flying Titans established a commanding 23-15 lead over Suwon. Nunag then made a significant contribution before Desiree Cheng finished it with a hit to force a decider.
The Choco Mucho-Philippines is set to face the second-ranked team from the preliminary round in the Final Four on Friday afternoon./PN
