POCARI-AIR Force shook off a sluggish start and out-steadied PetroGazz in the next three sets as it carved out an 18-25, 25-20, 26-24, 25-21 victory late Saturday to force a three-way tie for the lead in the quarterfinal round of the Premier Volleyball League Season 2 Reinforced Conference at the Filoil Flying V Center in San Juan.
Import Arielle Love and former MVP Myla Pablo combined for 34 of the Lady Warriors’ 57 spikes as against the Angels’ 49 as the defending champions banked on their power and blocking, 11-7, to cushion the impact of their sloppy service reception that yielded six aces for the Angels.
Love banged in 23 points, including three blocks, while Pablo also came through with three blocks and finished with 18 points for the Lady Warriors, who also drew 15 markers from Madeline Palmer and matched the BaliPure Water Defenders and BanKo Perlas Spikers’ reversals over their respective elimination round tormentors.
BaliPure turned back Iriga-Navy, 25-17, 18-25, 20-25, 26-24, 18-16, while BanKo-Perlas dominated Tacloban, 25-22, 25-20, 25-18, as the three gained the head-start in the single round quarters where the top two will join early qualifiers Creamline and PayMaya in the Final Four of the season-opening conference organized by Sports Vision and backed by Mikasa and Asics.
Olena Lymareva-Flink hammered in 21 kills and finished with 22 points while fellow import Anastasia Trach added 16 hits but the locals failed to come up big with Alyssa Layug scoring seven and Cherry Nunag adding six markers for the Angels.
Pocari, meanwhile, guns for the solo lead as action resumes tomorrow (Wednesday) with the Lady Warriors taking on the Lady Oragons in the 6:30 p.m. main game. PetroGazz and Tacloban try to get back into the think of things as they tangle at 4 p.m.