Games tomorrow (Saturday)
2 p.m. – Cignal vs Petro Gazz
4 p.m. – Akari vs Choco Mucho
6 p.m. – PLDT vs Chery Tiggo
PLDT survived a big first set scare then went on to wallop Galeries Tower, 29-27, 25-14, 25-18, and extend its win run to five in the Premier Volleyball League Second All-Filipino Conference elims at the Philsports Arena in Pasig Thursday.
Lapses and mishits actually enabled the Highrisers to seize a 27-26 lead in the opening frame behind Andrea Marzan and Roma Joy Doromal’s hits but the High Speed Hitters never backed down, relying on their experience and poise to hurdle the test for provisional hold of second spot at 5-1.
Erika Santos fired an off-the-block hit to force another deuce, putting the pressure back on the Highrisers, who yielded the next point on a Raprap Aguilar flawed assault. Taking the cue, Fiola Ceballos hammered one down off a broken play to save the set for PLDT and frustrate Galeries Torwer.
“Yung first set hindi namin nagustuhan since ang dami na namang lapses so kailangan i-address ulit sa training. Pero after that, medyo okay naman na,” said PLDT head coach Rald Ricafort, whose wards’ victory was their fifth straight since dropping a four-setter to the Cignal HD side in the inaugurals of the season-ending conference of the league organized by Sports Vision last Oct. 15.
Galeries fell to 0-6 in a tie with Gerflor, which earlier also yielded a 10-25, 16-25, 14-25 defeat to F2 Logistics.
PLDT then made quick work of Galeries in the second set then used a 7-0 run in the third frame to pad a shaky 11-10 edge to a commanding 18-10 bulge on its way to another romp.
“Hindi lang skills-wise pero kailangan ma-prepare sila mentally kasi top teams na yung mga next na makakalaban So feeling ko, dun talaga kami kailangan mag-focus,” said Ricafort.
The High Speed Hitters will next face the Chery Tiggo Crossovers tomorrow.
Santos led PLDT with 17 points on 15 attacks and two blocks to go along with 13 excellent digs while Royse Tubino added 14 marks and five excellent receptions for the High Speed Hitters.
Rachel Austero chipped in seven points while filling in for Dell Palomata, who was out due to load management, while Mika Reyes and Savannah Davison added six points apiece.
Rhea Dimaculangan finished with 16 excellent sets while Kath Arado posted 21 excellent digs after an hour and 33 minutes of action.
Meanwhile, Marzan scored 11 points for Galeries, which also drew nine markers from Doromal, while Audrey Paran and Dimdim Pacres had six and five points, respectively, for the Highrisers, who will try to score their first win against the Nxled Chameleons on Thursday at the Filoil EcoOil Centre.