Chery Tiggo Crossovers’ Eya Laure in the PVL All-Filipino Conference. -PVL PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines–Chery Tiggo overcame a first-set crisis to earn a come-from-behind 14-25, 25-20, 28-26, 25-19 victory and halt PLDT’s five-game winning streak in the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) All-Filipino Conference at PhilSports Arena in Pasig City.
Five players stepped up for the Crossovers, who lost Imee Hernandez due to injury in their previous game against Nxled on Thursday, led by Eya Laure who finished with 18 points on 16 kills and two aces.
PLDT opened strong with a 14-25 first-set win before Chery’s manpower adjustment and much better attacking helped the Crossovers take control of the clash.
It was a tight battle in the third set before PLDT’s Savannah Davison committed back-to-back crucial service and receiving error to give the frame to Chery.
“[Our players] were not that aggressive having a slow start again,” assistant coach Kung Fu Reyes, who called the shots for Chery for the third time in place of head coach Aaron Velez, said in Filipino. “But maybe PLDT’s blocking was really good (in the first set).”
“We didn’t have a lot of good first balls and we had soft services in the first set. We adjusted our players, put weight in our services and blocks until we slowly felt the pressure lifting,” he went on.
Chery Tiggo Crossovers. –PVL PHOTO
EJ Laure added 13 points on 11 attacks and two aces, Ponggay Gaston 12, comebacking Mylene Paat 11 and Cza Carandang 10, which can be credited to Jas Nabor’s excellent playmaking as she finished with 19 excellent sets.
“We had a lot of options, five options every time, as long as we get a good first ball even if it’s not a perfect pass—we can do a lot so thank you, Jasmine (Nabor),” Reyes added.
From that rough first set, Chery pulled off a 6-1 edge on services but PLDT still had a 13-6 advantage on blocks.
Davison paced the High Speed Hitters with 16 points, Erika Santos 14 and Dell Palomata 13.
“If we have a good first ball, I can see all of us ready [to attack]. Without that, the opponents would have an established block so that’s what we need to continue working on,” Nabor said.
“We always have slow starts so we need to be aggressive from the start. We are always slow and then decide to minimize the opponent’s lead, which cannot happen every game because what if the opponent pushes their lead,” she added.