After pandemic, team disbandment, ACL tear, Jolina dela Cruz finally rides new career wind

And just when Dela Cruz and La Salle were revving up for revenge in Season 82, disaster struck not only the team, but all sports worldwide as COVID-19 exploded as a full-blown pandemic in March 2020, leaving the UAAP no choice but to cancel the volleyball tournaments with just two games played.

It took two whole years before UAAP volleyball returned to action, only for Dela Cruz and La Salle to again fall short, this time in the Season 84 finals to the historic NU Lady Bulldogs, who stunned the league with a 16-0 season sweep and marked the program’s first women’s volleyball title in 65 years.

Yellow at the crossroads

After a grim three-year stretch, Dela Cruz finally had herself a run of success in 2023, as she finally won a championship with the Lady Spikers in her very last year of eligibility, while in the shadow of a rookie-MVP Canino, the same kind of dominating youngster Dela Cruz was in 2019.

Immediately after graduation, Dela Cruz parlayed her brief brush with success for a budding professional career, signing with the F2 Cargo Movers like many other La Salle stars who came before her on May 28, 2023.

Still under De Jesus, and now mentored by Lady Spikers legends like Aby Marano, Ara Galang, and Kim Fajardo, Dela Cruz had an absolutely perfect opportunity to further hone her craft and challenge the Premier Volleyball League’s best like Alyssa Valdez and an old foe in Rondina.

Full stop at red

Unfortunately for Dela Cruz yet again, her dream rookie run in the PVL only lasted seven months, as F2 Logistics made the stunning decision on December 13, 2023, to disband its legendary Cargo Movers sports franchise — not two weeks removed from a serious injury that put Dela Cruz on the shelf.

But as expected, a player of Dela Cruz’s caliber would not go unsigned for long, as on January 13, 2024, exactly a month after F2’s disbandment, upstart team Farm Fresh came knocking and snagged the former La Salle stalwart in a bid for serious PVL contention.

Somehow, some way, bad luck just never got off Dela Cruz’s back, as she stunned fans by opting for surgery on what was eventually revealed as ACL tear, a mere four days after signing with her new team, thus putting her out of commission for another calendar year.

Passing the checkpoint

The story brings us back here, to January 18, 2025, a year and a day removed from Dela Cruz’s last long-term absence, ending with an incredible scoring display in limited time, as if to remind everyone what they — and she herself — have been missing.

It was a nondescript game with minimal stakes and minimal fanfare at its conclusion, and yet for a select few, it meant the world.

“I’m happy because I came from an injury, and my priority now is to be healthy and always be present at training. I hope I’m always present at the games,” Dela Cruz said while inside the PhilSports Arena, the same venue where she unceremoniously ended her 2023 season and sidelined her for all of 2024.

“When I entered the game, I was just praying because I knew this is where I was injured. So, I was a bit tentative on defense, but Coach [Benson Bocboc] was just encouraging me since he also knew what happened to me here. But at least, I was able to overcome the fear.”

Few players, if any, have been tested in ways Dela Cruz has had in her young career. Still just 25 years old, she has all the time still in the world to make a winning — and more importantly, lasting — impact.

The road to success for Dela Cruz has been full of bumps and stops, but no hurdle is too high, and no curve is too sharp for a strong mind and heart, like she has proven to have. – Rappler.com