LOCAL squads test the mettle of Thai heavyweight Est Cola in the final round of the 2016 PLDT Home Ultera Philippine Superliga (PSL) Invitational Conference women’s volleyball tournament starting this Thursday at the FilOil Flying V Centre in San Juan.
Filipino hospitality takes a back seat as local teams do their best to beat the visiting team.
After emerging empty-handed in the Thai-Denmark Super League, PSL stars from F2 Logistics, Petron and RC Cola-Army are all eager to bounce back and clinch the crown of this topnotch inter-club tourney bankrolled by Senoh, Mikasa, Mueller, Asics and Grand Sport with TV5 as official broadcast partner.
Cha Cruz, Aby Marano and F2 Logistics will be the first to test the mettle of the Thais before Petron and three-time champion RC Cola-Army take their respective turns in the penultimate day of this single-round battle patterned after the format of the FIVB Grand Prix.
Petron coach George Pascua admitted that they are still licking the wound created by their sorry setbacks to Bangkok Glass, Idea Khonkaen and 3BB Nokhonnont in the Thai-Denmark Super League and only a victory in front of their home crowd will ease the pain away.
“It’s going to be a very exciting battle,” said Pascua, the two-time champion coach who guided the PSL All-Stars in the prestigious Thai tourney recently. “We learned a lot playing against the Thais and I expect the team to use that experience to its advantage when we face Est Cola in the PSL. It will surely be an emotional game because we all want to redeem ourselves against them.”