Geneveve Casugod of Generika Digs down on Cocolife Kaye Martinez Daly. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Generika-Ayala yanked the welcome mat from under Cocolife’s feet, scoring a 25-20, 25-15, 21-25, 25-16 victory Saturday at the start of the Belo-Philippine Superliga Invitational Conference at FilOil Flying V Center in San Juan City.
Generika coach Francis Vicente said he had no problem with teamwork as four of his starters scored in double figures against the neophyte team, which missed one of its its pillars in Denden Lazaro.
“We had a good balance. And the players get along very well,” said Vicente, also the national women’s team coach.
Vicente welcomed the PSL innovation that requires teams to field their second stringers in the second set to give all players court time.
“It’s a good rule. That way we get to see and gauge our players better,” said Vicente. “It’s up to the players to give it their best and the coaches to shuffle his players well.”
The Lifesavers encountered trouble in the third set but mainly because they seemed to take the Asset Managers for granted.
“I guess we still have to work on our killer instinct,” said Vicente.
Team captain Gen Casugod unloaded 20 points, 17 of them on the attack, to lead three other Lifesavers who turned in double-digit outputs against the Asset Managers.
“It’s a motivation for her (Casugod), she’s the team captain. She has to step up,” said Vicente, who got 12 points from Angeli Araneta, 11 from Patty Orendain and 10 from Fiola Ceballos.