Photo by Sherwin Vardeleon/INQUIRER
Petron proved Thursday night that it deserves to be called a super team.
Holding off a hard-fighting F2 Logistics squad, Petron hacked out a 26-24, 24-26, 24-26, 25-23, 15-11 victory to capture the Philippine Superliga All Filipino Conference championship via a two-game sweep at Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.
It was Petron’s first title in two years, completed after a three-hour Game 2 battle.
The Blaze Spikers, who swept all 13 games in the 2015 edition, also reaped the rewards of a multimillion-peso build up that snagged for them A-list players like Mika Reyes and Rhea Dimaculangan and young chargers Bernadeth Pons and Remy Palma.
But at crunch time, it was team captain Ces Molina who delivered the goods, unleashing an ace for 14-11 after breaking free from an 11-all deadlock in the fifth.
F2 Logistics was then slapped a net foul that had Petron’s bench storming the court in jubilation.
The Blaze Spikers opened the best-of-three series with a 25-23, 25-21, 25-19 victory on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Malacañang gave full backing to the country’s hosting of the 19th Asian Senior Women’s Championships on Aug. 9 to 17.