Cignal took the shortest route to the semifinals after taking a clean sweep of Cocolife, 25-21, 25-21, 25-22, in preliminaries of the Philippine Superliga Invitational Conference Saturday at Muntinlupa Sports Centre.
The HD Spikers finished the eliminations with a perfect 4-0 record and will have a one-week break while waiting for their opponents in the knockout semifinals.
After walking through the first two sets, the HD Spikers hit a snag in the third and trailed the Asset Managers 15-11.
Cignal, however, quickly erased the deficit with a 10-4 run to take a 21-19 lead.
Captain Rachel Daquis then launched the final blow, a back row kill, that finished off the match and sent the HD Spikers one step closer to the title.
“Rachel was really eager to win this game for us, she played in beast mode and carried the team,” said Cignal head coach Edgar Barroga.
“We came in a bit relaxed because our opponents are already out of contention but we realized we cannot afford to lose this game because we might blow our opportunity for the outright semifinals.”
Mylene Paat had a game-high 16 points for the HD Spikers while Daquis added 15.
Alexandra tan had eight points to lead the 1-3 Asset Managers.