Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines—Cignal grabbed a spot in the semifinals after tripping Foton, 26-28, 25-19, 25-19, 25-18, in the Philippine Superliga All-Filipino Conference quarterfinals Saturday at Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.
The HD Spikers are set to take on defending champion Petron in the penultimate round.
Cignal hit a bit of a snag in the fourth set after it allowed the Tornadoes to salvage a couple more points and trim the margin to six , 24-18, after a team block by the Tornadoes.
HD Spikers head coach Edgar Barroga called a timeout to settle things down before Mylene Paat delivered with a clinical kill to finish things off.
“We really prepared for this one and we didn’t take a break at all,” said Barroga in Filipino, who singled out Royse Tubino and Rachel Ann Daquis key factors in their win.
Tubino just finished her military training with Army while Daquis has been the steady leader the team has while fellow veteran Jovelyn Gonzaga recovers from her knee injury.
“I really pushed Tubino and thankfully she delivered for us and at the same time Rachel had a really good game.”
Daquis wound up with a game-high 24 points while Paat and Tubino added 22 and 13 points, respectively.
Despite the hiccup in the first set, the HD Spikers were methodical in their offense with a 67-45 advantage in spikes while also limiting their errors to 16 compared to the Tornadoes’ 31.
Mina Aganon led the Torndoes with 16 points while CJ Rosario and Shaya Adorador combined for 23 points.