Air Force struck down PacificTown-Army even as Creamline kept its record spotless after beating Chef’s Classics on Saturday night in the Premier Volleyball League Open Conference at Filoil Flying V Centre.
The Jet Spikers launched a crippling assault—a daring blitz from 10-11 to 19-11 in the third set—to finish off the Lady Troopers and score a 25-22, 25-21, 25-19 for only their third victory in eight matches.
PacificTown-Army, which fell to 4-4, was completely shell-shocked by their Armed Forces sister team, which continued rising from a poor start.
“We have become aggressive and begun to enjoy the game,” Dell Palomata said in Filipino. “We just want to give our all every game.”
The soft-spoken middle blocker, who scored 20 points, bared that Air Force hired a new trainer from Japan who introduced a new training regimen to the squad.
Earlier, Creamline had the luxury of using its entire bench—except for the injured leader Alyssa Valdez—to school youthful team Chef’s Classics, 25-11, 25-14, 25-21.
“We are very happy that everyone got to play today,” said Creamline setter Jia Morado, who is set to fly to Thailand on Sunday to join the national team.
Valdez, one of the top guns who will shoulder the country’s hopes to medal in the Southeast Asian Games later this year, will skip the national team training after she sprained her right ankle on Friday morning.
Doctors prescribed a one-week rest for Valdez, also striking her out of test competitions in Bangkok and Nakhon Ratchasima.
Relief open hitter Fille Cayetano finished with nine points to lead the Cool Smashers, who stretched their unbeaten tournament run to nine games.
With Cayetano, Michele Gumabao and Jema Galanza taking care of scoring, the Cool Smashers out-attacked the Red Spikers, 29-12, right in the first two sets.