Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
BaliPure knocked off top seed Creamline, 25-22, 27-25, 25-23, in a do-or-die for the lasr finals slot in the Premier Volleyball League Open Conference Wednesday night at Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.
The Cool Smashers played without their superstar Alyssa Valdez for the sixth straight game but still, the absence of the former Ateneo spiker can’t take anything away from how the Water Defenders played.
“I didn’t expect that we’re going to win in three sets but of course, my expectation was we are going to win,” said BaliPure head coach Roger Gorayeb. “Regardless of how many sets, the important thing is to make the finals.”
And it took a collective effort for the Water Defenders to reach the championship round anew with Jasmine Nabor orchestrating the offense with 44 excellent sets.
Nabor’s playmaking distributed the scoring load to three spikers with Jerrili Malabanan, Grethcel Soltones and Aiko Urdas all finishing in double-digits.
Malabanan wound up with 15 points while Soltones and Urdas had 13 and 12 points, respectively.
The Water Defenders, who forced a deciding Game 3 following a five-set win on Sunday, set up a best-of-three showdown with the Pocari Sweat Lady Warriors beginning on Saturday.
The Lady Warriors rallied past the Air Force Lady Jet Spikers in the other sudden-death earlier.
The Cool Smashers were 4-0 without Valdez and 8-0 overall entering Games 2 and 3 of their best-of-three semifinals showdown with the Water Defenders.
“If Alyssa’s inside, that’s already a minimum of 20 points. If she’s playing good [she’ll score] 25, 29 [points]. We do not look at this as Alyssa’s not there. We just have to play to the best of our ability.”