Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Petron fittingly closed out the first round by dominating Cignal, 25-15, 25-19, 25-14, Saturday night in the Philippine Superliga Grand Prix at Muntinlupa Sports Center.
F2 Logistics bounced back from a loss after crushing PLDT, 25-20, 25-21, 25-19 in the other game.
The two parted ways last Thursday after sharing the tournament lead for quite some time—Petron pinned a first loss on F2 Logistics—but except for their slightly different records, they’re back to doing the same old stuff.
Whipping their PSL foes.
It was a clean sweep of the their first seven matches for the Blaze Spikers, who appear to be peerless at this point of the conference.
“I think we did a good job, but it doesn’t end here,” said Petron coach Shaq Delos Santos. “It’s a good thing if we can maintain our winning streak. But we still have to step up if we want to remain undefeated in this very tough tournament.”
That’s bad news from the rest of the field.
Stephanie Niemer scored 23 points, while a flu-stricken Kath Bell added 19 for Petron, which finished the job in just 66 minutes.
Niemer, who is hunting her first PSL crown, unloaded 18 kills, one block and four aces.
“It’s really proud of our imports, they’re very dedicated and very professional,” said Delos Santos.
Erica Wilson provided 13 points for the HD Spikers, who fell to 4-3.
The Blaze Spikers will start their second round campaign when they battle struggling Foton on Tuesday at the Filoil Flying V Centre.
Meanwhile, Lindsay Stalzer led the Cargo Movers with 19 points as they moved up to 6-1, while PLDT fell to 3-4. —MARC ANTHONY REYES