ONE would think there’s a big pressure on the shoulders of Cignal’s Venezuelan import MJ Perez in leading the HD Spikers’ bid to win it all in the PVL Reinforced Conference.
Think again.
“I don’t think it’s something like pressure. I’m here for that. I’m here to help my team,” Perez said. “Of course, I will do my best to do my best performance and I will help my team as much as I can. But this is like teamwork.
“I cannot do 33 points alone. I need my teammates; I need everybody helping me. So, I feel that this is not about me scoring 33 points, this is about my team helping me score these points,” she added.
The veteran outside hitter guided the now disbanded F2 Logistics Cargo Movers to the top of the defunct Philippine Superliga in 2017.
Perez, 36, led Cignal to a 25-18, 29-27, 21-25, 25-22 victory–the HD Spikers’ second straight and a 2-0 mark–against the ZUS Coffee Thuderbelles last Tuesday.
A former Olympian for Venezuelan squad, Perez insisted she is just working hard,
“I feel like you know as an experienced player in my last teams, I’m doing the same role.
I’m the oldest in the team with the most experience so I think I don’t feel any pressure or anything. I just go there and do my best for my teammates,” the 6-foot-2 spiker said. “It feels great (2-0 start), of course. But still, I have a feeling that we could do more. Still, I have the feeling that this is just the start, the beginning.
“We have to keep working harder because we are working game by game. Of course, we have to improve more things in the team and especially our consistency during the game.
I’m happy but it’s not enough.”
