Petron books semis slot

Petron demolished Foton, 25-12, 25-10, 25-23, to enter the Belo-Philippine Superliga semifinals trouble-free Thursday at Filoil Flying V Centre.

And already, Petron coach Shaq delos Santos is looking at a sweep of the elimination round—the better to prepare the Blaze Spikers for the semifinal stage.

“Hopefully we can sweep this, because the next round will be most important,” said Delos Santos, whose charges will face middle of the road squad Generika-Ayala in their last eliminations match on March 23.

Delos Santos said he didn’t expect Foton to fold up easily but commended his players for stepping up.

“It just so happened that we were able to adjust to one another faster than the other teams,” he added.

The Blaze Spikers will thus join Japanese club Kobe Shinwa along with two other PSL teams in a single-round semifinal where the champion will be determined through points scored.
The Tornadoes, sans Jaja Santiago and EJ Laure due to the ongoing UAAP, absorbed their second defeat in four matches.

Cocolife scored its first victory in four matches at the expense of fellow neophyte Sta. Lucia Realty, 22-25, 25-17, 25-23, 25-16, in the second game.

Sta. Lucia remained winless in three starts.

Opposite hitter Aiza Maizo-Pontillas led Petron with 11 points but it was the Blaze Spikers’ evenly distributed point production that keyed the victory.

Starting out for Petron, Mina Aganon drilled in eight points, while Mika Reyes and Bang Pineda each contributed five. Ces Molina Rhea Dimaculangan and Cj Rosario chipped in four points apiece.

Molina and Reyes each blocked twice to lead the Petron defense that produced seven blocks that stymied the Tornadoes. The Blaze Spikers also led in digs, 25-18.

The Tornadoes tried to rely on resident middle blocker Dindin Manabat, but she could only make three points.