BY ABBY TORALBA
DINDIN Manabat flashed her vintage form, tallying 25 points as Akari scored a runaway 25-17, 25-14, 25-20 victory over Capital1 yesterday and kept its slim semifinal hopes in the PVL All-Filipino Conference at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig.
Despite their second straight shutout victory, the Chargers remained in seventh place with a 4-5 (win-loss) record. However, their chances of making it to the post-elims play still remained mathematically possible, hinging on the condition that they sweep their last two matches to boost their points tally and that at least three of the four teams contending for the last two semis spots do not exceed six wins.
The one-hour, 30-minute romp also served as a big morale-boost for the Chargers, who will next face the Chery Tiggo Crossovers on April 20 before wrapping up their prelims campaign in the season-opening conference organized by Sports Vision against the winless Strong Group Athletics on April 27.
“Inenjoy ko lang at syempre, makaperform kami, mailabas namin kung ano talaga yung team Akari,” said Manabat, who spiked her stellar performance with 20 kills, three blocks and two aces. “So every training, every game, ang kailangan lang talaga namin is i-enjoy and ipanalo yung mga bawat games namin.”
“Credit naman talaga sa mga bata kasi medyo yung nagkaroon ng outcome naman yung pinaghirapan namin na training,” said Akari mentor Raffy Mosuela. “Actually, medyo from the start, ang focus namin is going to Chery dahil yun yung medyo mabigat na kalaban namin. Yung sa Capital1 naman is, nagkaroon din naman kami ng gameplan kaya ayun, nanalo naman.
