PVL: Semis-bound PayMaya survives BaliPure in five sets

PayMaya ended its run in the preliminaries in an unglamorous way after fighting through BaliPure in five sets, 12-25, 25-21, 25-21, 20-25, 15-9, in the Premier Volleyball League Reinforced Conference Wednesday at Filoil Flying V Centre.

The High Flyers, who have locked one of the semifinals spot prior to their game, capped off their prelims campaign with a 4-2 record as the second seeds behind top-ranked Creamline.

The Water Defenders, meanwhile, will enter the quarterfinals as the sixth seeds with a 3-4 record.

PayMaya broke through midway fifth set after Tess Rountree scored from the back row for the 8-4 lead and Jasmine Nabor converted on a late ace to give the High Flyers a 13-7 buffer late in the set.

Although the High Flyers had a smooth cruise in the fifth, the same cannot be said in the first set as head coach Roger Gorayeb saw nothing but lackadaisical play from his players at the start of the game.

“I told them that there’s nothing to be serious about this game because whatever happens we already have the highest quotient but we don’t want to end the eliminations on a very bad manner,” said Gorayeb.

“You still have to play your best, if we lose there’s nothing to worry about as long as you played your best but the way we played in our first set that wasn’t the best but that was the worst,” added Gorayeb in Filipino.

Rountree, who finished with 27 points, put the High Flyers at the 14-8 match point with a kill straight to the middle of the Water Defenders’ defense before Grethcel Soltones finished things off.

Jorelle Singh and Soltones also finished in double digits for PayMaya with 11 and 10 points, respectively.

Janisa Johnson led BaliPure with 27 points while Alexis Matthews and Roselyn Doria combined for 28 points.