By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The PLDT High-Speed Hitters treated their returning star Kim Kianna Dy with a convincing win over the Cignal HD Spikers, 25-20, 25-21, 20-25, 25-22, in the ongoing Premier Volleyball League (PVL) All-Filipino Conference on January 28, 2025, at the Philsports Arena.
After staying on the sidelines for a year and a half due to a major knee injury, the High-Speed Hitters finally welcomed their top acquisition back and officially graced the court, ending her 559 days of hiatus.
PLDT tapped the services of Dy from the F2 Logistics Cargo Movers last January 2024, but was already unavailable when she went under the knife.
Since signing with the High-Speed Hitters, Dy made her return in the PVL when she was deployed by head coach Rald Ricafort midway through the fourth set against Cignal.
Still rusty and trying to recalibrate her movements inside the court, Dy was unable to provide her usual offensive numbers but her presence alone inside boosted the other members of the PLDT.
Kim Fajardo, PLDT’s veteran setter, tried to set up Dy for a couple of attacks but all of them got denied by Cignal’s middle blockers, including one swatted away by Vanie Gandler that already looked to be her first point back after several PVL conferences.
During the post-match interview, Dy turned emotional sitting in the middle of the podium, voicing out how hard the process was from her recovery to familiarizing the PLDT’s on-court plays as an injured player.
“I’ve been more patient with myself because the journey of me being here right now wasn’t really easy. It’s been a hard year. I’m still trying to get to my 100% and I’m slowly getting there,” said Dy.
Steering the PLDT to the win over Cignal was outside hitter Savannah Davison, who led her team in scoring with 24 big points built from 22 successful attacks.
On the other hand, the HD Spikers got 22 markers from their star, Vanie Gandler, but PLDT’s balanced scoring effort backstopped by their tremendous floor coverage helped them seal their fifth win of the All-Filipino Conference.
