Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Pocari Sweat-Air Force scored an opening match upset after knocking down Creamline in three sets, 25-23, 25-12, 25-23, in the semifinals of the Premier Volleyball League Reinforced Conference Sunday at Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.
Airelle Love, who suffered from cramps earlier in the game, put up 20 points as the Lady Warriors blindsided the Cool Smashers, who had more than two weeks of rest after getting a semifinals bye for topping the league with a 6-1 record in the eliminations.
From a 19-19 tie in the third set, the Lady Warriors scored four straight points with Love hitting a booming down-the-line kill for the 23-19 buffer.
Pocari head coach Jasper Jimenez said their extra games in the quarterfinals proved to be fruitful as his players had to go through an earlier adversity that prepared them well enough for their semifinal match against the Cool Smashers.
“I think the advantage we had was we played so many games before this one, we went through the eye of the needle,” said Jimenez in Filipino. “And one more thing, we won the first set against Creamline and those guys aren’t used when they’re down.”
Love had viable support from her teammates with Madeline Palmer putting up 12 points to help the Lady Warriors while Myla Pablo and Jeanette Panaga had nine points apiece.
Alyssa Valdez had 16 points to lead the Cool Smashers but had little help as the team’s second-leading scorer was Kuttika Kaewpin who had six.
Although the team didn’t have much disparity in terms of attacks, 34-30 spikes in favor of Pocari, the Lady Warriors were an impenetrable wall scoring on 13 blocks while also showing up from long range with 10 aces.