Petrogazz sprang back from a shattering five-set defeat to Tacloban with an imposing 25-11, 25-23, 25-18 victory over BanKo-Perlas late Sunday night to keep its grip of the No. 4 spot in the Premier Volleyball League Season 2 Open Conference at the Filoil Flying V Center in San Juan.
The Angels yielded a number of attack points but pounced on the Perlas Spikers’ series of miscues to pound out the surprising straight-set romp that kept the former at fourth at 6-5 heading to the final stretch of the double-round eliminations.
“The girls really wanted to win,” said PetroGazz coach Jerry Yee, whose wards came off a sorry loss to the Fighting Warays Saturday night that kept the race for the No. 4 seat among Pocari-Air Force (5-6) and Tacloban (5-7) wide open.
In contrast, the Spikers failed to sustain their three-set sweep of the front-running Ateneo-Motolite Lady Eagles, also last Saturday.
“In crucial matches, they tend to play impatient, so they commit mistakes and eventually the chances (to win) would slip away,” said Yee. “So we tried to work it out and perhaps, Perlas was a little bit tired.”
The loss also dropped BanKo to third at 8-3, enabling Creamline, which subdued Pocari-Air Force, 23-25, 25-21, 25-20, 22-25, 15-9, in Legazpi City, to seize solo second anew at 8-2 with Ateneo nailing the first semis berth with a 10-3 card.
The Angels came through with just 28 attack points, eight short than the Spikers but had eight blocks against their rivals’ three and cashed in on BanKo’s poor service reception and scored seven aces.
More importantly, PetroGazz posted 32 points off BanKo’s errors that helped key the crucial victory in the season-ending conference of the league organized by Sports Vision and backed by Mikasa and Asics.
Cherry Nunag and Maricar Baloaloa fired 12 and 11 hits, respectively, while Paneng Mercado, Jessey de Leon, setter Relea Saet and Jonah Sabete combined for 20 markers for the Angels, whose two of the last three elims games will be against the Lady Eagles (Nov. 17) and the Cool Smashers (Nov. 21).
Dzi Gervacio hammered in 12 hits while Sue Roces and Joy Dacoron added seven markers apiece for the Perlas Spikers, who played with so much fire against the Lady Eagles but lost steam against the Angels.