Petro Gazz spills BaliPure; Banko-Perlas grounds Pocari-Air Force

BanKo-Perlas dominated the first two sets before thwarting the comeback of Pocari-Air Force in the third en route to a 25-19, 25-14, 25-22, victory Saturday night in the Premier Volleyball League Reinforced Conference quarterfinals at FilOil Flying V Centre.

The Perlas Spikers fell behind, 13-20, in the third frame before launching an all-out offensive to register their second straight win and inch a game closer to the semifinals.

BanKo-Perlas also denied Pocari outright entry to the semifinals while taking the quarterfinals lead. The Lady Warriors absorbed their first loss in three matches.

In the nightcap, Petro Gazz hammered out a similar shutout after whipping BaliPure-National U, 25-23, 25-18, 25-14, to also bolster its semifinal hopes.

Down by three early in the third set, the Angels went on a scoring run to grab a 22-11 lead.

“We had a game plan for our opponents and the girls stuck to it,” said coach Jerry Yee in Filipino.

In the first game, Iriga-Navy averted a mid-match collapse to defeat Tacloban, 25-9, 21-25, 26-28, 25-21, 15-13, for its first win in the quarterfinals.

The Lady Oragons appeared on track for an easy day in the office after handily taking the first set.

But that was until the Fighting Warays fought back to take the next two frames that set the stage for a thrilling back-and-forth down the stretch.

“We really worked hard on staying positive the whole time after we broke down,” said Macy Ubben, Iriga’s import.

The 26-year-old spiker hit the tying spike (13-all) and the go-ahead block on Tacloban top gun Jovielyn Prado (14-13) in the deciding set.

“We really focused on our job out there and the rest took care of itself,” added Ubben.