Lady Troopers brace for Tornadoes

RC Cola Army Lady Troopers. Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Moments after booting Generika out of contention, RC Cola-Army was already thinking about semifinals opponent Foton.

“Foton is our biggest problem,” said RC Cola-Army assistant coach Rico de Guzman following their 25-20, 25-19, 25-19 win over Generika in the Asics-Philippine Superliga Grand Prix playoffs Sunday night at Philsports Arena.

They collide in a knockout semifinals on Dec. 3 in Legazpi City with the Tornadoes, who lost just one match in 10 elimination games, holding overwhelming odds against the Lady Troopers.

De Guzman, subbing for the absent Kungfu Reyes who was coaching University of Santo Tomas in the UAAP juniors, said they will log on more hours in practice to be better prepared for the knockout semis.

“We will try to be faster and hope to stand up against Foton,” said De Guzman. “Foton is so big no matter the rotation they always have tall frontline.”

But De Guzman noted that RC Cola-Army has a  “winning tradition” having won the title here thrice already.

They showed traces of that last night as Jovelyn Gonzaga got ample support from imports Hailie Ripley and Kierra Holst. The left-handed opposite spiker top-scored with 13 points, while Ripley and Holst made 12 and 11, respectively.

All in all, RC Cola-Army destroyed Generika in attacks, 48-31, with veteran setter Tina Salak dishing out 23 of the teams’ 28 total against the combined 17 by the Life Savers.

“We also prepared for them (Life Savers) but we didn’t expect to win in straight sets,” said De Guzman. “Thankfully what we trained for we were able to execute today.”

Honey Royse Tubino added nine points for RC Cola-Army to steal minutes from starting open spiker Rachel Anne Daquis, who chipped in three points.

Generika got 10 points from import Darlene Ramdin, who had five blocks. But that wasn’t enough for the Life Savers who were relegated to battle for fifth place in the classification round.