Petron trips Meralco; Cignal outlasts Philips Gold

CHA Cruz electrifies the crowd but Meralco still powerless against Petron. Photo by Marc Reyes

Cignal outlasted Philips Gold in a thrilling marathon match to prevail, 15-25, 25-15, 25-17, 19-25, 16-14, Tuesday night to take the early leadership in the 2015 Philippine Superliga Grand Prix women’s volleyball at San Juan Arena.

The HD Spikers, bouyed by imports Amanda Anderson and Arielle Usher, thus scored their second straight win, while the Lady Slammers absorbed their first loss.

Earlier, defending champion Petron pounced on a disjointed Meralco side, 25-15, 25-14, 25-19, last night to score its first win.

The Blaze Spikers took full advantage of the injury to longtime Meralco import Christina Alessi, who sat on the bench with a sprained ankle.

Alessi’s fellow Power Spiker Liis Kullerkann was also benched by coach Ramil de Jesus for most of the second set as he opted for an all-Filipino crew.

Petron atoned for its opening-day defeat at the hands of Cignal HD while dealing Meralco its second straight defeat.

Brazilian reinforcement Rupia Inck led all scorers with 15 points and Dindin Manabat added 12 for Petron.

Petron coach George Pascua said they made adjustments on receive and blocking and it helped that Meralco was missing the services of Alessi who played briefly in the first set but was pulled out early and sat out the rest of the way.

“That gave us a boost because we neutralize their blocking,” said Pascua. “This is what we need to boost our morale and recover, a straight sets win.”

Meralco coach Ramil de Jesus, who missed the opening game because her mother passed away, was visibly still groping for the right combination and had to use his local crew which he knew from way back because they were his former players at La Salle.

“It’s a challenge for us to bounce back and there are a lot of things to fix,” said De Jesus who had heart-to-heart talk with his players at the dugout.

Top of Meralco’s laundry list should be to find way for its rookies Cyd Demecillo, Kim Fajardo, Mary Joy Baron and Mika Reyes not to get overwhelmed with the high-intensity games.

Only the veteran Cha Cruz managed to come up with double-digit performance with 12 points.