MANILA, Philippines: With pain comes strength, especially for the Farm Fresh Foxies.

In their opening match in the Premier Volleyball League (PVL), Farm Fresh displayed guts in an extended first set against the defending champions Creamline Cool Smashers before accepting defeat, 36-34, 23-25, 22-25, 15-25, in the PVL 2024 All-Filipino Conference at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City, last Thursday, February 24.

But for the Foxies their first heartbreak in the conference is what gave them the confidence and strength to orchestrate a sweep against the Capital 1 Solar Spikers, 25-16, 25-18, 25-16.

"Owning one set against the Creamline is good for us, and that gave us our much-needed confidence coming to our game (against Capital 1). They are the champion team, and the way we played in the first set showed what we can do. That first-set win is really helpful to boost our confidence," Trisha Tubu said.

Tubu also wants to look at the bigger picture rather than dwelling on their first game loss.

"We picked up our confidence in that game. Knowing that their expectations are high, I am happy that we showed up with grit in our match."

For new Foxie Louie Romero, she expected that the team would have the "first-game jitters" coming to their match, but she witnessed a brave Foxies.

"We are a young team and going versus a champion team I expected that we would be shaky and we would be slow, but I saw how my teammates fought," Romero said.

"Little by little we can show to them that this is Farm Fresh, this is what we want to prove."

The Foxies (1-1) will try to capture another win as they will face the winless Akari Chargers (0-2) on Tuesday, March 5, at 6:00 p.m., at the PhilSports Arena.