FILE PHOTO – Pocari Sweat Lady Warriors. Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Pocari Sweat had to dig deep into its bag of tricks to upend gutsy Power Smashers in five grueling sets, 25-23, 25-19, 23-25, 22-25, 15-12, and take the first game of their best-of-three semifinals series in the Premier Volleyball League Reinforced Conference Saturday at Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.
The Lady Warriors blew a two-sets-to-none lead before averting disaster in the fifth set and flirting with defeat didn’t sit well with head coach Rommel Abella.
Giving up a two-set lead and having to play a fifth one drew Abella’s ire after he saw that his team relaxed come the third set.
“We relaxed,” said Abella. “We need to stay focused if we want to win the game, unfortunately we weren’t able to do that in the fourth set.”
“We have to work on the players’ mindset because we don’t have any problems scoring, the problem is sustaining leads.”
Scores were tied at 10-10 at the latter part of the fifth set and three quick points allowed Pocari to take a breather.
The Lady Warriors’ finally breath out a huge sigh of relief when Power Smashers import Kannika Tipachot’s final hit went wide.
Michelle Strizak led the Lady Warriors with 20 points while Myla Pablo, who put Pocari at the 14-12 match point, added 16.
Jeanette Panaga and Desiree Dadang were also vital in Pocari’s offense scoring 14 and 13 points, respectively.
Tipachot led the Power Smashers with 20 points while Hyapa Amporn and Jovelyn Prado combined for 29.