Chery Tiggo, which hurdled a pair of lesser lights in varying fashions last week, faces a stern test against Akari even as PLDT tries to sustain its rebound and F2 Logistics seeks to bounce back in Week 2 of the Premier Volleyball League All-Filipino Conference elims Tuesday.
After a successful initial PVL on Tour foray in Batangas which drew in a packed crowd over the weekend, the Sports Vision-organized league holds another out-of-town game in Antipolo with the Cargo Movers testing the Nxled Chameleons’ mettle at 2 p.m., the High Speed Hitters going for another win against the Farm Fresh Foxies, and the Crossovers shooting for a third straight victory – and the solo lead – versus the unpredictable Akari Chargers at the Ynares Center.
Chery Tiggo, out to make up for its fifth place finish in the first conference last March, scrambled past Farm Fresh in last week’s inaugurals of the season-ending tournament then ripped newcomer Galeries Tower to set the early pace with defending champion Creamline and Petro Gazz.
But against the Chargers in their 6 p.m. clash, the Crossovers will need to play as consistent as possible with the former raring to atone for their crushing defeat to the High Speed Hitters following a shock five-set win over the Cargo Movers last week.
Chery Tiggo coach Aaron Velez has been drawing solid games from sisters EJ and Eya Laure, Imee Hernandez, Shaya Adorador and Jasmine Nabor and clutch performances from Cess Robles that the absence of Mylene Paat and Cza Carandang has hardly impeded his play-patterns in the early going of the tournament backed by Mikasa, BingoPlus, ArenaPlus, SMART, Rebisco, Milcu, Kumu, Asics and SportRadar.
The Laures have combined for a pair of 27-point outputs in their first two games.
But Akari counterpart Jorge Brito is hopeful he could muster the same energy and outputs from his combo of fighters, led by Dindin Manabat, Faith Nisperos, Ezra Madrigal, Fifi Sharma and Trisha Genesis.
The five produced double-digit outputs in upending the Cargo Movers but struggled against the High Speed Hitters with only Nisperos and Manabat finishing with 11 and 10 points, respectively, enabling PLDT to fashion out a rather cruising 25-16, 25-16, 25-23 victory last Thursday.
The High Speed Hitters, who earlier bowed to the Cignal HD Spikers in four, look to get past the Foxies in their 4 p.m. encounter with the latter going all-out to arrest their back-to-back losses to the Crossovers and the Choco Mucho Flying Titans and get back into contention in the single-round robin elims among a record 12-team field.
Focus will also be on the Chameleons, whose emphatic sweep of the Highrisers stirred up interest from the other league new squad bannered by Lycha Ebon, Jhoana Maraguinot, Krich Macaslang, May Luna, Judith Abil and playmaker Camille Victoria.
But expect the star-studded Cargo Movers to unleash their full might against the Chameleons in their 2 p.m. tussle. While injured top hitter Kim Dy remains out of the roster, F2 Logistics maintains a solid crew made up of Ivy Lacsina, Myla Pablo, Aby Maraño, Ara Galang, Majoy Baron, Jolina dela Cruz, Mars Alba, Elaine Kasilag and Joy Dacoron.
Games can be streamed on Pilipinas Live and PVL.ph and aired on One Sports, One Sports+ and SMART Livestream app.