Familiar terrain

Carmela Tunay is ready to embrace a crucial — but familiar — role when she sees action in the brand-new season of the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) this April.

In the latest edition of The Athletes’ Tribune late Monday, Tunay stressed that leading a new team, Peak Form, is no easy task, but she is ready for the pressure and looking forward to a respectable finish in the first professional women’s volleyball league in the country.

Peak Form is the latest team to join the PVL.

Aside from Tunay, the squad also enlisted former University of Santo Tomas (UST) aces Dimdim Pacres and Chloe Cortez as well as Judith Abil, Jessma Ramos, Angeli Araneta, Coleen Bravo, Angelica Legacion and libero Bia General.

Edgar Barroga, one the most respected coaches in the Philippine Superliga (PSL), had been tapped to call the shots and immediately appointed the most veteran member of the team, Tunay, to serve as team captain.

“Actually, when they told me that I will be the team captain, I didn’t think that it’s going to be a burden maybe because we haven’t really convened as a team,” said Tunay, who graced in the weekly podcast with Kim Fajardo of F2 Logistics.

“But what I’m preparing now is how to lead the team inside the court because it’s been a while I was given this kind of task of being a leader.”

Tunay said serving as team captain is nothing new to her.

In fact, she used to lead the Tigresses during her collegiate career for UST and became one of the most outspoken players when she joined Cignal in the PSL.

Then, she transferred to Petron, where she further harnessed her leadership skills by playing next to veterans Frances Molina, Mika Reyes, Aiza Maizo-Pontillas and Rhea Dimaculangan.

“In my old teams like Petron, we had so many veterans,” Tunay said.

“This is the first time in many years that I will be given this kind of responsibility again. Now, I’m slowly working on myself so when we get back on the court, I will not have a hard time to adjust.”

Still, whether she serves as the team captain or not, Tunay is thankful for the opportunity given to her.

“We know that my former team, Motolite, was disbanded and we didn’t know where to go,” she said.

“I’m very thankful to have a new team and being the team captain is just a bonus.”