Generika-Ayala’s Fiola Ceballos towers over Foton’s Maika Ortiz (left) and Selime Ilyasoglu for a kill. —Sherwin Vardeleon
United Volleyball Club and Generika-Ayala eked out much-needed victories against separate rivals Thursday night in the Philippine Superliga Grand Prix at Filoil Flying V Centre.
UVC tripped PLDT Home, 25-18, 17-25, 25-22, 25-17, for its fourth win in seven games, while sending its foe to a 3-3 slate.
Earlier, Generika-Ayala finally notched its first victory but not after toiling against a determined Foton side to prevail, 25-21, 25-22, 19-25, 20-25, 15-11.
The Lifesavers quickly established a two sets to none lead largely through the efforts of Thai import Kanjana Kuthaisong, who replaced Brazilian Nikolle del Rio last week.
But the Tornadoes made a run for it and, through import Courtney Felinski, slowly got back into the game and forced a deciding set.
Foton led, 4-1, at the start of the fifth but Kuthaisong soon caught fire and ignited a 7-0 run which the Lifesavers rode all the way to victory.
The 21-year-old Kuthaisong scored 25 points for Generika-Ayala, which dropped its first five matches.
Generika setter Jamie Lavitoria also had an impressive game, tossing 23 excellent sets, feeding Fiola Ceballos and Kseniya Kocyigit, who responded with 20 and 11 points, respectively.
“I’m very happy for one and the whole team, we really worked it out today,” said Lavitoria.
“We finally got the monkey off our backs. It is a win that we badly need,” said Meneses. “We finally found the right combinations and Jamie did a great job for us.”