Petron, Foton hurdle opening-day foes

Petron’s Lindsay Stalzer scores off Generika’s Mary Grace Masangkay.

Petron took advantage of a new rule and imports that fitted into its system right away.

Lindsay Stalzer and Hillary Hurley blended perfectly to power Petron past Generika-Ayala, 25-13, 25-17, 25-19, on Saturday at the start of the Philippine Superliga Grand Prix at Filoil Flying V Centre.

Stalzer banged in 14 points, while Hurley pumped in 15 as the Blaze Spikers, one of the league’s so-called “super teams,” handily won even with an all-Filipino crew late in the game.

“We worked hard, trained hard and had fun,” said Hurley who is making her maiden stint in the country.

But that didn’t show as she and Stalzer, who played in two other PSL teams before, connected strongly with their teammates while Mika Reyes and Ria Meneses manned the net.

Petron coach Shaq Delos Santos employed the new PSL rule allowing three imports to play at the same time if the third foreign player is a libero.

In the second game, Foton joined Petron on top after a 25-15, 25-19, 22-25, 25-22 triumph over Cignal.