Cignal came out flat after hacking out two tough set wins but battled back from three points down late in the decider to fashion out a 25-22, 34-32, 15-25, 16-25, 15-13 decision over Petro Gazz on Thursday and tighten up the race for the last two semifinal berths in the Premier Volleyball League Reinforced Conference at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
With the game on the line and their semis chances imperiled, coach Shaq delos Santos went to his locals in the stretch and Ces Molina, Rachel Anne Daquis, Chay Troncoso and Roselyn Doria responded, combining for the team’s last seven points that overturned an 8-11 deficit into a morale-boosting victory.
Their defense, which slackened in the third and fourth sets, also held up when they needed it most, limiting the Angels to just two points in the clutch, including one courtesy of Gel Cayuna’s service miscue.
“We slowed down and the performance somewhat took a dip in third and fourth sets. Good thing, we were able to win,” said delos Santos. “Despite the miscues (in the third and fourth sets), what’s important was how they responded at malaking factor ang magkaroon ng malaking chance to make it to the Top 4.”
The victory hiked Cignal’s win-loss card to 3-2, catching its victim at third with the surging F2 Logistics side, which streaked to its third straight win after dropping its first two games in a run by a stirring comeback from 0-2 set down to unmask erstwhile unbeaten Creamline late Tuesday.
But Choco Mucho remains in the hunt at 3-3 while Akari (2-4) and PLDT (1-4) were battling it out in a crucial match at presstime.
Creamline and Chery Tiggo clinched the first two Final Four seats with identical 5-1 cards.
Import Tai Bierria did topscore for Cignal with 19 points but struggled a bit in the fifth, forcing delos Santos to go to his locals, who rose to the occasion to check their wobbly finish and stay in the thick of things in the season-ending conference of the league organized by Sports Vision.
“I’m gonna give it to coach, he has so many pieces and he just used them so well,” said Bierria. “And to everybody else…coming in and out of court could be really hard but we kept our composure and stayed together. Just really proud.”
Molina flourished with 13 points while Ria Meneses finished with 11 markers and Daquis added nine points, the last a key block that shattered the 13-all count. Doria then cashed in on the Angels’ failure to regroup and fired an ace, ending the long two-hour, 24-minute match marked by a grueling 43-minute duel in the second set.
Angeli Araneta also tossed in eight points, Doria added seven markers and Cayuna wound up with five on top of 14 excellent sets.
Lindsey Vander Weide posted a game-high 29-point output and four others – Myla Pablo (17), Djanel Cheng (11) Aiza Pontillas (11) and Jonah Sabete (10) – turned in double digit scores. But the Angels hobbled in the face of the HD Spikers’ fiery comeback and missed securing at least a tie for the last semis spot.
A Vander Weide ace put Petro Gazz at 11-8 but Cignal quickly tied it with three straight points from Molina and Troncoso’s hits and a block off Grethcel Soltones. The Angels regained the lead on a Cayuna service miscue but Molina leveled the count again with a drop shot.
Pontillas’ through-the-block hit over two Cignal defenders put Petro Gazz back on top again but the HD Spikers drew strength and inspiration on a crucial (ball in/ball out) challenge off a hit that was previously ruled as out.
“That’s the turning point. We were just lucky that we were able to recover,” said delos Santos.
Then came Daquis’ clutch block that shattered the sixth deadlock for what was only the third lead change in the frame before Doria wrapped it all up with that big ace.
