AirAsia and returning star Michele Gumabao came through with an inspired game to down the Dindin Santiago-led Petron squad, 25-23, 19-25, 25-19, 25-23, Saturday night in the Philippine Superliga All-Filipino Conference women’s division in Cebu City.
The win was the second in a row for the Flying Spikers, who joined a three-team tie for the lead at 4-2 with idle Generika-Army and RC Cola-Air Force while sending the Blaze Spikers to fourth place by handing them a second consecutive defeat in a 3-2 card.
Under the winner-over-the-other rule, Generika-Army, which started the tournament at 0-2, assured itself of an outright semifinal berth along with RC Cola-Air Force, which had earlier beaten AirAsia.
Petron, expected to top the eliminations mainly because of Santiago’s presence, dropped to fourth at 3-2 after absorbing a second straight loss.
It was as if Gumabao never said goodbye to the sport as she provided muscle at the net and overall leadership for the Flying Spikers.
“Suddenly we are a complete team,” said AirAsia coach Ramil de Jesus. “She (Gumabao) had only three practices with us, so I didn’t really expect this kind of performance from her. She did a lot of things that don’t reflect on the stats sheet. It was her defense, heart, hustle and leadership which gave us this win.”
Gumabao managed to score three points while AirAsia got the bulk of scoring from team skipper Cha Cruz who had 19 points, and Stephanie Mercado who added 14.
The reinforced frontline also allowed AirAsia to neutralize Santiago’s attacks although the 6-foot-2 rookie hotshot still came away with 17 points, 15 on kills.
“Petron came from a defeat and we took advantage of their low morale, but we still put up a tough defense against Dindin and the other attackers,” said De Jesus.