PERLAS-BanKo’s middle blocker Kathy Bersola emerged as the second Philips Gold-Premier Volleyball League (PVL) Press Corps Player of the Week for the period July 19 to 23.
Bersola started the week leading Perlas with 14 points, highlighted by five blocks, to take down her alma mater, the University of the Philippines Lady Maroons, 30-28, 21-25, 25-21, 25-18, last Wednesday.
She later had a career-high 24 in a 24-26, 13-25, 25-13, 25-22, 15-11 thriller over Bali Pure that catapulted her team to solo fourth place with a 3-3 (win-loss) record.
“My teammates gave me all the opportunities to score,” Bersola said. “And I took advantage of the opportunity. We needed the wins so everybody had to do their part. I just tried to do my best.”
Bersola stood out among three candidates—Perlas-BanKo teammate Nicole Tiamzon, who was also instrumental in their two victories, and Creamline Cool Smasher Rose Marie Vargas.
The 5-foot-11 middle blocker runs fifth in the Best Blocker race with 13 kill blocks out of 91 attempts (20 faults and 58 rebounds) with a 0.50 average by set. She is also 16th in scoring with a total of 64 points built on 49 spikes 13 blocks and two aces.
Perlas, which missed the semifinals of the previous Reinforced Conference, has a mountain to scale in clinching at least a playoff for the last semifinals berth when it takes on unscathed leader Creamline in its last assignment on July 30.
And Bersola vowed to go all out in that game with the help of her teammates.
“We told ourselves that we need to perform better this conference,” she said. “It’s a lot about pride, we just can’t let ourselves lose.”