Galeries Tower head coach Lerma Giron believes undergoing the birth pains of being a relatively new professional club is part of the growth process.

Just over a year after joining the Premier Volleyball League (PVL), the Highrisers are still working on finding their identity and building chemistry to measure up against established clubs.

Giron thinks the squad will learn a lot from “necessary setbacks” as Galeries Tower tries to be more competitive in the ongoing 2024-25 All-Filipino Conference.

“For me, this is a process. There’s no shortcut to progress,” Giron said.

The Highrisers saw changes in their personnel since debuting in last year’s 2nd AFC.

“Even though Galeries is now more than a year since we built this team last September (2023), we’ve seen a lot of changes, a lot of new faces that came in. So we have to deal with adjustments,” Giron said.

Galeries Towers acquired talented setter Julia Coronel and a reliable winger in Jewel Encarnacion as well as middle blocker Dodee Batindaan in the first-ever Draft.

Despite having new talents available, except for Coronel due to her commitment to the national team, and a veteran Thai import in Sutadta Chuewulim, the Highrisers went winless in the Reinforced Conference as they finished 11th in a field of 12.

Coronel joined the squad after her Alas Pilipinas stint for the ongoing six-month season-opening tournament.

Still, Galeries Tower struggled.

It dropped a four-setter against Akari in its debut before a coming close to pulling off an upset over last year’s runner-up Choco Mucho in five sets.

The Highrisers were swept by PLDT and ZUS Coffee in their next couple of outings, before scoring a breakthrough straight-sets victory over expansion team Capital1 in Cebu.

Galeries Tower, however, squandered a 2-1 match lead and bowed against former champion Chery Tiggo to close the year for a 1-5 record at 10th spot.

“I guess we have to go through these difficult and painful part of the process. There’s no automatic ‘happily ever after.’ This is a process. So, we have to face it, accept it and work for it,” Giron said.

“But even if we’re down, we need to keep pushing and motivating each other for us to rise above the adversities.”

Despite the tough uphill climb that the squad will have to go through when action resumes, Giron and the Highrisers are holding their heads up.