MANILA, Philippines — Myla Pablo knows what resilience is.
Nxled, which opened the 2026 Premier Volleyball League (PVL) All-Filipino Conference with a 3-0 start, suffered its first loss from the hands of the Galeries Tower Highrisers.
After this loss, the Chameleons suffered a two-game losing skid that slimmed their qualifying-round hopes, leading to a play-in path.
Knowing what the Highrisers are capable of, Pablo, together with the Chameleons pulled through via a 25-23, 25-18, 25-23 victory on Saturday night, at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium to stay alive in the tournament.
For the 32-year-old gunner, what changed this time is the team’s maturity and leadership on the court.
“We have more leadership this time, and we showed that we are veterans. We are used to tight situations,” she said after scoring 10 points for Nxled.
Galeries planned to extend the match after holding a 23-21 lead in the third set. However, Nxled managed to turn things around as the rotation favored the team with three-time Most Valuable Player (MVP) Brooke Van Sickle at the front row.
“But we said, once it got down to the last two or last one [points/minutes], this has to be ours. We shouldn’t give them anything else, because if we give up even one more, they’ll gain momentum,” she added.
With Nxled’s core of Van Sickle, Pablo, and MJ Phillips, all sharing a championship on the now-defunct Petro Gazz Angels, the Ettore Guidetti-squad showed their caliber in crucial matches.
"Maybe it's the resilience we had back with Petro Gazz—we were used to chasing the lead during crucial games, and also dealing with our usual standing at number six or number seven.”
“ But of course, now that we’ve moved to Nxled with Coach Ettore, we need to apply what we went through at Petro Gazz to this game."
Nxled will next face the gutsy Farm Fresh Foxies, and will try to make history for its franchise, stepping in to the semifinals for the first time.