Jakarta Pertamina Enduro Mission Returns Glory

Junaida Santi answered shyly when asked about her preparations for the 2025 Proliga final four with Jakarta Pertamina Enduro. Santi's attitude was in contrast to her fierce appearance on the field. When she got the ball, the 18-year-old outside hitter hit it hard, surprising her opponent, and earning points for the team.

When Jakarta Pertamina Enduro practiced at the Pertamina Simprug Sports Hall, Jakarta, on Tuesday (18/3/2025), Santi stood out prominently. During a scrimmage with the men's volleyball team, Bharata Muda Jakarta, Santi repeatedly scored points through her powerful strikes. It is no surprise that Santi has now become one of Jakarta Pertamina Enduro's key players in navigating the final four round of the 2025 Proliga.

"We want to prove that the team can win the championship again. It has been a long time since Pertamina last won. Hopefully, this year is the year," said the player from Deli Serdang, North Sumatra.

For Santi and Jakarta Pertamina Enduro, the final four round that will roll on April 17-20, 2025 is not just a phase after the regular season. In fact, this is the initial round for them to realize a big mission, namely to restore the team's glory. Jakarta Pertamina Enduro, which has a dazzling track record in Proliga, wants to taste the championship trophy again.

The last time Jakarta Pertamina Enduro won a championship title, Santi had not yet pursued volleyball. Jakarta Pertamina Enduro claimed the championship title in the 2018 Proliga, two years before Santi entered the sport at the age of 13. Seven years have passed, and Santi and Pertamina Enduro are working together to bring another championship trophy to the team's showcase of achievements.

The title in the 2018 Proliga is the second trophy for the team that also used the names Jakarta Pertamina Energi Putri and Jakarta Pertamina Fastron. They emerged as champions in the 2014 edition. In the 2016, 2017, 2019, and 2023 Proliga editions, they had to be satisfied with finishing as runners up.

Last season, the team with the short name JPE also managed to reach the semifinals. However, they failed to advance to the final match after securing only one victory in their first game against Jakarta BIN.

During the third-place match, JPE was defeated by Popsivo Polwan. They concluded the competition in third place after a loss with a score of 1-3 (18-25, 25-23, 16-25, 13-25).

Santi was part of the team last season. However, she spent most of her time warming the bench. This season, however, she has had more playing time and has been able to showcase impressive performances.

"Thank God, this year there is progress compared to last year. (Development) in terms of playing mentality. Spike has also improved," said Santi, who often gets additional training for spike.

This development has raised Santi's optimism to achieve better results with JPE this season. Optimism is also felt by Santi's teammate and team captain, Tisya Amallya Putri, who just joined JPE this season.

Ahead of the 2025 Proliga, Tisya once said that she did not want her team to just “go all out” at the beginning. That often happened to JPE in previous seasons. After appearing to be pushing full strength since the beginning of the season, they ran out of steam in the final four.

This season, JPE actually performed the opposite. Tisya and her friends did not appear convincing in the early weeks. However, they were able to "step on the gas" during the decisive week to the final four and finished in second place in the regular season standings.

The team that debuted in Proliga in 2012 swept the victory in the last two matches of the regular season. That included a victory over the first and second round champions, Jakarta Popsivo Polwan. JPE was the only team that was able to defeat Popsivo.

"This season, for JPE, the journey was tough to finally enter the final four. However, thank God we were able to qualify and hopefully we can enter the final," said Tisya.

JPE coach Bulent Karslioglu said the impressive performance in the last two matches was due to the players' improved performance. According to Bulent, his players were able to translate the tactical changes well.

However, Bulent wants the players to forget the regular season results and focus on the final four. After reaching the final four, they set a new target, which is to reach the final.

"Everyone asked, do you want to be champions? I said, no, we will focus on the final four first. If we don't make it to the final four, how can we be champions?" Bulent said.

"But now, first, our target is the final, of course. And after that, we want to be champions. We want to achieve it step by step," he said again.

Bulent assessed that the competition in the final four would be tight considering that the teams that qualified were the four best teams. However, the Turkish coach also believed that his team was able to compete, especially because the performance of his players was quite good. That includes solid local players.

As for foreign players, Bulent said that JPE is still looking for the right person to fill the remaining slot. JPE has released two of its foreign players, Elana Samoleinko and Erica Staunton.

They now only have Yana Shcherban as a foreign player. In the 2025 Proliga, each team is allowed to have two foreign players and foreign player substitutions can be made until before the final four.

Chef de Mission (CdM) Jakarta Pertamina Enduro, Werry Prayogi, is optimistic that his team will continue the positive trend after the last week of the regular season. The competition for the final four will be tight, but Werry said, JPE has valuable capital with young players who are starting to show their abilities.

According to Werry, the emergence of young players like Santi is part of JPE's mission in Proliga. JPE hopes to help build national volleyball by bringing out young talents.

"Another mission is to become a champion. Thank God we entered the final four and are still considered even though many doubted us at first. However, I believe that even though the foreign (players) are patchy, we have local players who are great," he said again.