Tornadoes snap 3-game slide

Foton Lady Tornadoes. Photo taken from Philippine Superliga’s Facebook account

FOTON managed to leave its troubles behind by pushing RC Cola-Air Force deeper into the standings last night.

Between the two teams that have fallen on hard times, the Tornadoes gathered enough strength to beat the Raiders, 25-14, 25-13, 25-16, in the Philippine Superliga Grand Prix women’s volleyball at Filoil Flying V Arena in San Juan.

The Tornadoes snapped their three-game losing streak with their second win in five games. The Raiders, despite having two prolific imports, continued to suffer with a four-game slide and are now at 1-4.

“We learned from our mistakes. I guess the players learned soon enough,” said Foton assistant coach Ian Fernandez. “We knew that whoever wins tonight will be No. 4 and we need that so we have strong chance of making the next round.”

Fernandez, subbing for the absent Vilet Ponce de Leon, said they employed “quality plays with more consistency,” which spelled the difference in the match.

Lindsay Stalzer topped all Foton scorers with 15 points, while towering rookie Jaja Santiago added 14 points. Foton also had eight aces.

Puerto Rican star Lynda Morales had nine points for RC Cola while its local crew only had nine digs against 31 from Foton.

RC Cola also had 23 unforced errors, making things a lot easier for Foton that only committed 10 in one of the most lopsided match of the conference.

Ivy Perez also tossed 33 sets for Foton that paved the way for scorers Stalzer, Santiago and Kayla Williams. Veteran Rhea Dimaculangan just had 10 sets for the RC Cola and that caused major problem on their offense.

“Now in the second round, we look at it differently. More or less we know how the other teams plays so we are ready for that,” added Fernandez.