PSL: Petron Blaze Spikers set out to get back on track

MANILA, Philippines — Petron, the league’s hottest team early on, tries to regain its bearing when it closes the elimination round against Cignal even as four men’s teams mix it up Wednesday in the Philippine Superliga All-FIlipino Conference volleyball tournament at Cuneta Astrodome.

Coming off back-to-back defeats, the Blaze Spikers gun for their fourth win against the HD Spikers in the curtain-raising lone women’s match at 2 p.m. Win or lose, Petron will make the quarterfinals outright along with AirAsia.

The two squads will wait in the wings as three lower-ranked teams fight for survival.

“We’re fighting for our lives,” said Cignal coach Sammy Acaylar, whose wards finished second in the past two conferences. “We will need to work doubly hard. We will do what the other teams did to beat Petron.”

That would entail a lot of cohesion, a winning quality the HD Spikers have failed to display so far in the conference.

They have won just once in five games. Cignal will also need to neutralize the threat from 6-foot-2 rookie Dindin Santiago, front and center of the Petron offense who has not been getting enough support from the rest of the Blaze Spikers.

The second round of the men’s division will have Systema battling Instituto Estetico Manila at 4 p.m., and Cignal locking horns with Via Mare at 6 p.m.

Petron is coming off a pair of defeats at the hands of Generika-Army and AirAsia, but is expected to bounce back with a victory this time.

“We’re already working on them,” Petron coach George Pascua said of their new strategies coming into the game.

He gave the team an off day Sunday and a light practice session Monday.

“I want all of them, not only Dindin, to come back fresh and strong,” added Pascua, who admitted that their searing 3-0 start had put a heavy toll on the team.