After experiencing a heart-breaking loss to Cignal, Lindsey Vander Weide and MJ Phillips pulled out all the stops needed to make sure that Petro Gazz would not suffer the same fate against Chery Tiggo on Saturday night.
Phillips played clutch in the final set, scoring 4-0 consecutive points that allowed Vander Weide to close out the match and hand the Angels a five-set 25-14, 24-26, 25-13, 21-25, 15-9 victory over the Crossovers at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The American reinforcement dropped 29 points to go along with 12 excellent digs while the Fil-Am middle blocker fired 23 points on 15 attacks, seven blocks, and an ace.
Phillips said that she did not want to let the team down after losing to the HD Spikers in five sets where they came out of a 0-2 hole.
“My thoughts at that moment was just like, we just gotta win. Whatever it has to take, whatever we have to do, we just gotta do it. Nothing was gonna get past us, no ball was gonna get dropped. That was just our mentality the whole way through,” said Phillips.
“Definitely thinking the same thing. MJ always comes up clutch in moments like that. I knew she was gonna do it. I was very confident that she's gonna do her job, she's gonna put the ball away, she's gonna close the block. So having someone on the court like that next to you, in those clutch moments, especially in fifth sets, is a great feeling,” added Vander Weide.
Vander Weide, meanwhile, said that this win gives the team much-needed confidence ahead of their matches against United Auctioneers Inc-Army and F2 Logistics, respectively.
The Angels hiked their slate to 4-2 after the win against Chery Tiggo to move on the cusp of a semifinals berth.
“Definitely feels great to get this win, especially after that tough five-set loss. Definitely a confi, and I think it was something that we needed. We haven't been feeling great, and I think this brought us back to where we needed to be.”
