Rachel Ann Daquis (left) and Abi Maraño. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
MALOLOS CITY—Easily one of the celebrated volleyball beauties in the country, Rachel Anne Daquis Saturday brought out the beast.
Daquis unloaded 17 attacks and steered RC Cola-Army to a 25-22, 25-12, 25-19 domination of F2 Logistics in the Philippine Superliga Invitational Cup out-of-town sortie here.
Daquis didn’t merely tow the Lady Troopers to the solo lead with two straight wins. She also did it against former teammate Aby Maraño who popularized the “beast mode” hashtag in social media with her fiery brand of play.
In the second game, reed-thin Danna Henson came up with a big performance to lift Foton to a 25-16, 23-25, 25-20, 25-17 win over New San Jose Builders for its first victory in two matches.
The Arellano standout scored 12 points including an ace to power the Toplander, who tied opening-day tormentor F2 to a 1-1 record.
Honey Royse Tubino and Jovelyn Gonzaga provided ample backup for Daquis, contributing 13 and 11 points, respectively, for RC Cola. Tina Salak also cleared the way for those attacks by making 20 excellent sets.
“We executed our game plan very well,” said Army assistant coach Rico de Guzman who filled in for head coach Emilio “Kungfu” Reyes who had a game with the University of Santo Tomas in the UAAP.
“We knew how strong their offense was; we knew their players, so we doubled up on defense,” de Guzman added.