Philips Gold Lady Slammers. Photo from Philippine Super Liga Facebook account.
Cignal brushed off Foton’s comeback attempt to prevail, 25-20, 25-19, 16-25, 25-23, Thursday night to remain unbeaten and at the top of the Philippine Superliga Grand Prix women’s volleyball at The Arena in San Juan.
The HD Spikers are now at 4-0 while the Tornadoes absorbed their second defeat in three games.
Bojana Todorovic and Alexis Olgard thrived at crunch time as Philips Gold recovered from a lethargic first two sets to turn back a fading RC Cola-Air Force crew, 23-25, 20-25, 25-21, 25-21, 15-8, earlier.
Making key adjustment up front anchored on imports Todorovic and Olgard, the Lady Slammers pounced on an enemy whose local crew seemed to run out of gas as the match wore on.
It was Philips Gold’s third straight win, while RC Cola, despite working behind do-it-all import Lynda Morales and Sara McClinton, absorbed its second defeat in three games.
Olgard scored 27 points, while Todorovic added 25 for the Lady Slammers.
The Raiders leaned too much on Morales who produced 27 points and McClinton who had 16.
“I asked them what’s our problem [after the first two sets]. I told them to just play their game and have fun,” said Philips Gold coach Francis Vicente.
Vicente then called in 6-foot Lutgarda Malaluan to replace Desiree Dadang up front to beef up the team’s blocking.
It worked wonders for the Lady Slammers, who cleared the alley for Olgard and Todorovic to bomb away at the Raiders.
Morales, an FIVB Grand Prix standout for Puerto Rico, did all she could to rally the Raiders back into the thick of things in the fifth set, even asking setter Rhea Dimaculangan to give her quick sets for easy points.
But by then the Lady Slammers had regained momentum and were just too classy to be stopped.
At 20-all in the fourth set, Dimaculangan and Judy Ann Caballejo lapsed into consecutive errors as Myla Pablo joined Olgard on the offensive to force the decisive fifth set.
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