Ciao, Bella! Belen puts on a show, torches Power Chargers with 35

Games tomorrow:

(Playtime FilOil Centre)

1 p.m. — Farm Fresh vs Nxled

6 p.m. — Galeries Tower vs Creamline

Bella Belen was simply unstoppable.

The prized winger picked up the best time to shine bright, punctuating her career performance with the game-winning back-to-back kills as Capital1 escaped Akari in a cardiac, 28-26, 22-25, 25-15, 23-25, 21-19, decision for its first win in the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) Season 10 All-Filipino Conference Siklab series Thursday at the Ynares Center-Antipolo.

The 2025 top overall Draft pick registered a personal-best 35 points on a 34-of-65 spiking clip, with her biggest coming from the last two hits that gave the Solar Spikers their first and only match point advantage followed by the closing crosscourt spike.

Capital1 accomplished what it failed to finish last Saturday in a stinging five-set reverse sweep loss to Choco Mucho in Cebu City for a 1-1 win-loss record.

“I’m very happy we won the game and at the same time I saw how our team worked hard to get this win,” said Belen, who actually tallied a triple-double with her 20 digs and 19 excellent receptions.

Of course, we don’t want a repeat of what happened in the last game where we had a lot of ‘What ifs’. What if we won that game? So now, I’m very happy we won this game,” added the Alas Pilipinas standout.

Erika Santos, Vanie Gandler and Cherry Nunag finished with 10 markers each while setter Julia Coronel dished out 29 excellent sets to help the Solar Spikers convert 84 spike points.

Capital1 almost collapsed in the deciding frame after squandering a 13-11 lead as Fifi Sharma’s consecutive quick attacks and a Grethcel Soltones kill gave the Chargers the first of their six match point advantages.

Soltones pushed Akari to its last taste of the lead at 19-18 off a kill. Santos saved a point for Capital1 in the fifth set’s last deadlock.

Coronel setup Belen for the go-ahead smash from the left side that shattered Sharma’s block and gave the Solar Spikers the lead, turning the tables around.

The National University product did not allow Akari to mount a counterattack as she pounded the spike that ended the two-hour, 47-minute encounter.

“We’re in the fifth set. We have the chance to win the game. So, we just did it. As we’ve been saying, winning in this kind of situation is always sweeter because the challenge is there,” Belen said.

Capital1 had a hard time shaking off the Chargers in the opening frame but still drew first blood in an extended decision.

The Solar Spikers dominated the third set after Akari took second but failed to finish off the Chargers in the fourth frame.

“I’m happy because we’ve been showing the fight, showing the fire. And that’s what we’ve been building since we started in Capital1,” Capital1 head coach Jorge Souza De Brito said.

Akari absorbed a second straight loss in as many outings, following an opening-day sweep against defending champion Creamline in front of a 19,106-strong crowd inside the SM Seaside Cebu Arena.

Sharma finished with 20 points, 18 coming from attacks while Ivy Lacsina scored 17 of her 18 markers on kills and added 26 excellent receptions and nine digs for the Chargers, who threw away 25 points off errors.

Eli Soyud had 17 points in three sets of play while Mars Alba tallied 32 excellent sets for Akari.