Dindin Santiago Manabat leads Akari past former team Chery Tiggo. –PVL PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Akari kept its playoff hopes alive with a five-set win over Chery Tiggo, 16-25, 25-22, 19-25, 25-21, 15-11 in the Premiere Volleyball League’s All-Filipino Conference at San Juan Arena on Saturday.
Dindin Santiago-Manabat did much of the heavy lifting for the Chargers, who improved to a 2-4 record, with 26 big points.
“We just enjoyed the game and once I enjoyed it, they enjoyed themselves. When they know I want to fight, they’d fight with me. We wanted to win, like we always do and earlier they were listening [to me].,” said Santiago-Manabat in Filipino.
Akari stayed with the momentum in the deciding set when EJ Laure failed to bring the gap closer with an attack error to put the Chargers up, 13-10. Mylene Paat tried to keep the Crossovers alive with a kill, 13-11, but Santiago-Manabat kept at it and sank a kill to bring Akari to match point.
Laure once more failed on her attack which gave the win to the Jorge Souza de Brito-led squad.
Down two sets to one, Akari took charge of the penultimate set and grabbed control of the game after Chery Tiggo–Santiago-Manabat’s former team–wrested a 2-1 set lead.
Chiara Permentilla nailed crucial hits to put the Chargers at set point, 24-21, before Paat’s attack error helped extend the game into a fifth set.
The Adamson product, who just return from a long layoff due to injury, finished with 18 markers for the Chargers.
Paat, meanwhile, went on to finish with 19 points while Laure came away with 14 of her own as the Crossovers fell to a 3-3 card.