On a scale of 1-10, Petron’s teamwork is still at six, according to its head coach Shaq de Los Santos.
Even then, that was enough to crush an unsteady Generika-Ayala, 25-21, 24-26, 25-21, 25-18, Tuesday in the Philippine Superliga All Filipino Conference at Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.
Later in the evening, F2 Logistics plucked its third straight victory at the expense of lowly Cherrylume, 25-5, 25-10, 25-11.
The Cargo Movers were very much in command that they had the luxury of running plays that coach Ramil de Jesus said they needed to master.
“It’s an opportunity to run these plays because we tend to commit mistakes that we committed in the previous group stage,” said De Jesus in Filipino.
“It’s a short tournament and we are still trying to get the right mix,” he said. “We hope to make the top four and then we’ll see from there.”
Aby Maraño, Majoy Baron and Kim Kianna Dy scored nine points each as all Cargo Movers made the scoring column except for liberos Carmel Saga and Dawn Macandili, who made 16 digs.
Meanwhile, it was the third win in four games for the Blaze Spikers, whose A-list lineup has yet to reach its full potential.
“That’s what we are working on right now. From 1-10, we are still 6. There is still a lot of room for improvement,” said Delos Santos.
National team players Ces Molina and Aiza Pontillas scored 20 and 17 points, respectively, for Petron, which also got contributions from fellow PH players Rhea Dimaculangan and Mika Reyes.
Open spiker Bernadeth Pons missed the match to attend her graduation at Far Eastern U.
Generika’s national team member Gen Casugod failed to give the usual numbers and was held to four points.
Patty Orendain, Fiola Ceballos and Angeli Araneta tried to take the cudgels, doing most of the work in the second set where the Lifesavers recovered from set point to steal the frame.
“I must admit that we relaxed in the second set. Good thing we know we could beat them and we came back soon enough,” said Delos Santos.