Pocari, Creamline shoot for quarterfinal headstart

Pocari Sweat hopes to steady the ship after a wobbly end to the elimination round when it takes on Air Force in the playoffs of the Premier Volleyball League Reinforced Conference on Saturday at Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.

Creamline, meanwhile, hopes to add consistency to an up-and-down campaign when it battles Perlas in the other women’s match.

The Lady Warriors dropped their last two matches in the classification phase and lost to the Power Smashers in the tiebreak for the second and last outright semifinal berth.

Pocari thus dropped to the cutthroat quarterfinal phase, where they face the resurgent Air Force Jet Spikers for the second time in three days.

Pocari hopes to get back at Air Force, which dealt them a stunning 25-19, 24-26, 25-27, 25-21, 15-6 defeat that yanked them out of an outright semifinal berth.

Pocari battles Air Force at 4 p.m. hoping to suit up ace Myla Pablo and cover up for the absence of import Edina Selimovic, who is out with a hamstring tear.

Creamline, meanwhile, battles Perlas at 6:30 p.m.