Brooke Van Sickle knows the Petro Gazz Angels cannot start slow, as they ready for the PVL All-Filipino Conference semifinals.
After overcoming a tough quarterfinal series against the ZUS Coffee Thunderbelles, Brooke Van Sickle and the Petro Gazz Angels are shifting their focus to the 2024-25 PVL All-Filipino Conference semifinals.
The Angels had to claw their way past the gritty Thunderbelles to secure their spot in the round-robin semifinals.
Reflecting on their Game 1 defeat in the best-of-three quarters, Van Sickle, who finished with 24 points in Game 3, admitted that the team learned a valuable lesson—one that will be crucial against the league's top contenders.
"Biggest lesson, I mean, I feel like we all learned it from the first [game]. You can't start off flat. The teams, especially now, going in the semis, like, the teams just gonna eat us up if we come out flat like that," Van Sickle said during the post-game press conference.
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After dropping Game 1, Petro Gazz bounced back in dominant fashion, sweeping the next two games to eliminate ZUS Coffee.
Come the semifinals, the Angels will face other powerhouse squads such as the Creamline Cool Smashers, Choco Mucho Flying Titans, and Akari Chargers.
Van Sickle acknowledged the challenge ahead, particularly with veteran-laden teams and high-caliber players now in the mix.
"And now we're playing other veterans, like teams that have won championships. And, you know, other teams are just absolutely gunning for it,” Van Sickle explained. “So now we have to, you know, have the mindset that these teams, they have more firepower, I would say, and a little bit more.”
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Petro Gazz is expected to have some sort of edge against the other three teams, with their only loss during the preliminaries coming against Creamline.
Still, with the All-Filipino Conference filled with unpredictable results, Van Sickle knows the importance of coming in prepared and matching their opponents' intensity.
"You see how the PVL, it's been all sorts of, you know, ups and downs, and you don't know who wants it more. So we just better come out," she emphasized.
The Angels will open its semifinal campaign against the Cool Smashers at the Ynares Center Antipolo on Saturday, March 29.