Tots Carlos unfazed by high expectations as she looks to play even better this season

Expectations will be high for Creamline’s Tots Carlos — and rightfully so. The 24-year-old Cool Smasher racked up the awards last season, bagging both the Best Opposite Spiker and MVP awards in the Open Conference and the Invitational Conference.

Don’t think for one second, though, that Carlos will sweat the burden of high expectations. In fact, she is welcoming the pressure, embracing it, and looking forward to playing with it.

“Those awards, nakuha ko ‘yon with the help of my teammates, so honestly, ‘yung pressure, it’s [a] good [kind of] pressure,” said Carlos in an interview with One Sports. “I get to push myself, I get to push my teammates to be better, to play better inside the court.“

But Carlos, ever the team player, emphasized that she is all about the team, and that she doesn’t really think about individual awards, but “more on kung ano ‘yung goal ng team.”  Still, the former UP Fighting Maroon admitted she is also “just really grateful” for the recognition she has received.

And it appears Carlos is poised to add some more hardware to her trophy collection after spending much of the offseason honing her game. The two-time MVP, in particular, seems to have fine-tuned the the little details in her game — all in the hopes of helping Creamline get back to the PVL mountaintop.

“As an athlete, hindi pa naman pulido ‘yung skills,” Carlos said. “For me, personally, medyo mahina ako sa blocking, so I focused more on paano ko mai-improve ‘yung blocking ko. ‘Yun lang, small details pero malaking impact in terms of pag nagsama-sama na kami sa laro.”