STEPPING ON THE GAS
Petro Gazz clips Chery Tiggo, nears bronze
Petro Gazz flirted with disaster before beating Chery Tiggo, 22-25, 25-12, 25-18, 27-29, 15-12, to inch closer to a bronze medal finish in the Premier Volleyball League All-Filipino Conference at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Thursday.
Brooke Van Sickle provided consistent scoring throughout the game while MJ Phillips and Jonah Sabete took over in the deciding set to win Game 1 in their best-of-three series.
After a nerve-wracking extended fourth set, Van Sickle finished with a career-high 36 points from 31 attacks, four blocks, and an ace, despite only scoring one point in the fifth set.
Meanwhile, Phillips stepped up to the plate with five blocks along with three aces from her 15 points, while Sabete dished out 19 attacks from her 21 points.
“I couldn’t do it without my teammates, it’s a six-man sport. I didn’t realize that I had that many points but my setters were able to do a fantastic job,” Van Sickle said.
“Dj (Cheng) did a very good job in being able to setting up a system and setting up the perfect ball.”
Petro Gazz setter Djanel Cheng was in her element as she carved 22 excellent sets, with her eight points.
Remy Palma and Aiza Maizo-Pontillas also contributed six points apiece while KC Galdones and Myla Pablo added two and one point, respectively.
Phillips took matters into her own hands early in the fifth set as she scored three consecutive points from attacks and a block, while Sabete stretched the lead to 9-4 after adding an attack of her own.
Eya Laure and Ara Galang tried to shorten the gap after scoring attacks of their own but Sabete was able to halt the Angels from gaining momentum by preventing Galang from replicating her move with a block.
‘I feel like towards the end when it got into crunch time, we’re a little stressed.’
Chery Tiggo, however, was able to force a tie at 12-all after capitalizing on Petro Gazz’s error as the younger Laure and Paat hammered down attacks of their own, but the Angels prevailed after Van Sickle and Phillips scored a point each, while Galdones wrapped it up with an ace.
“I feel like towards the end when it got into crunch time, we’re a little stressed. (But) we’re passing good, like our passing got a little stabilized, and I feel like we’re picking up a lot of balls, defensive plays so good job to our team,” Van Sickle said.
The Angels will attempt to finish the series as they face Chery Tiggo once more on Sunday at 4 p.m. at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.