Petron leaned on team captain Ces Molina to squeak past Cignal, 25-20, 18-25, 25-16, 16-25, 16-14, win Saturday night in the Philippine Superliga All-Filipino Conference at Muntinlupa Sports Center.
But while the back-to-back champions gutted out a bounce-back victory after a loss to rival F2 Logistics recently, it was Cignal that sent a message that this tournament might not be just a two-team race after all.
“We learned a lot from the last two games,” Molina said. “Against F2 Logistics we failed to hold on to the game. Now we managed to finish it.”
Cignal, one of the league’s founding clubs that hasn’t won a title yet, made its threat felt in the game, hitting match point before crumbling under the weight of pressure and Molina’s heroics.
Later in the day, Foton slammed PLDT Home Fibr, 21-25, 25-18, 25-19, 25-15, to break a three-game skid.