By Abby Toralba
GRETHCEL Soltones and the Petro Gazz Angels picked up from where they left off by shutting down Farm Fresh 25-21, 31-29, 25-14 yesterday to boost their semis hopes in the Premier Volleyball League Invitational Conference at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig.
Cignal also scored a similar straight-sets win over Foton in the next match, a 25-10, 25-16, 25-22 victory to gain a share of second with Petro Gazz at 2-1 and tighten up the semis race in Pool B play.
Soltones and skipper Aiza Maizo-Pontillas went unstoppable for the Angels, firing 16 and 15 points, respectively, while Nicole Tiamzon added eight markers.
“I’m happy with how my players performed today. Iyon nga lang, sa first two sets, 21 errors kaagad. But I’m happy sa third set, na-minimize na namin iyong errors naming,” said Petro Gazz coach Oliver Almadro. “I hope we can bring this momentum to the next game.”
The HD Spikers imposed their will early behind Ces Molina, Jovelyn Gonzaga and Roselyn Doria’s sustained assaults then weathered the Tornadoes’ onslaught in the third to rebound from a four-set loss to the F2 Logistics Cargo Movers after dispatching the Angels, also in four, in the conference’s inaugurals last June 27.
“I’m very thankful to the Lord for guiding us for the entire game and the opportunity to train after dropping our last game. It’s a good sign we were able to recover and win,” said Cignal coach Shaq delos Santos, who drew 16 points Molina, 14 hits from Gonzaga and 10 markers from Doria.
Setter Gel Cayuna tallied 22 excellent sets along with three points, two from the service line, to help Cignal win.
“We really needed this win; actually, we should win all our games,” said Molina, citing the tight taut format, particularly in the six-team Group B of the two-division conference.
Group A is made up for five squads.
The Angels were dragged into a close, frenzied battle in the first two sets due to their errant plays, enabling the young Foxies to take command late in the second frame before succumbing to Petro Gazz’s superb blocking and their own attack error in the end.
The Angels, runners-up to the Creamline Cool Smashers in the recent All-Filipino Conference, unloaded 53 attack points, nearly doubling the Foxies’ 29-point effort, came through with seven blocks, two more than their rivals, and produced five aces against the latter’s three.
With a third straight 0-3 loss, Farm Fresh bowed out of the semis race in the mid-season conference.
“Marami pang kulang,” said Soltones. “We struggled in the first 2 sets because of our errors.”
