B’SPIKERS, MOVERS GO FOR ALL THE MARBLES

THE country’s most dominant teams— Petron and F2 Logistics—clash one last time to determine the Philippine Superliga All-Filipino Conference champion on Thursday at the Filoil Flying V Centre.

Game Three of the dramatic best-of-three series kicks off at 7 p.m. following the suddendeath finals showdown between University of Santo Tomas and University of the Philippines at 4 p.m. and the battle for bronze between University of the East and Far Eastern University at 2 p.m. in the Collegiate Grand Slam.

After racing to 12 consecutive victories, the Blaze Spikers booked a finals duel with bitter rivals Cargo Movers and looked poise to winning the title via a sweep.

Petron took Game One in dominant fashion, 25-23, 25-11, 25-17, to inch closer to another crown in the women’s club league bankrolled by Isuzu, Mueller, Asics, Mikasa, Senoh, Bizooku with Genius Sports as technical partner.

But disaster struck in Game Two on Tuesday night.

The Cargo Movers marched to war with fire in their eyes and hounded and pounded the Blaze Spikers with their middle attacks and superb blocking in the second and third sets before going for the kill in the fourth for an impressive 21-25, 25-19, 25-20, 25-17 victory.

F2 Logistics Head Coach Ramil de Jesus said a golden opportunity presented itself so they wasted no time denying Petron a series sweep and a second All-Filipino title since 2015.

“For as long as the opportunity to win comes, we’ll take it,” de Jesus said. “I believe in my players. I know they will deliver. After all, we’re not just here to play—we’re here to win the title.”

Ara Galang was and delivered 17 kills to finish with 20 points in Game Two, while Majoy Baron and Cha Behag chipped in 14 and 13 points, respectively, for the Cargo Movers, who asserted their mastery in the blocking department, 12-4, and the service box, 9-2.

“I don’t want to think that momentum is on our side. I don’t want my team to be complacent,” de Jesus said.

But Petron Coach Shaq de los Santos remains defiant, believing that they can still win the crown in the battle that has ESPN5, Hyper HD and Aksyon TV as broadcast partners.

“We’ve been in this situation before,”said de los Santos, recalling their disappointing loss to the Cargo Movers in last year’s Grand Prix where they won the opener but collapsed the rest of the way.

“We’ve already learned our lesson. We won’t let this golden chance to slip away,” he said.

He added that winning the title is their ultimate objective and they will finish the job whatever it takes.

“We’re still optimistic that we can defend the title,” said de los Santos, who will bank more on star players Rhea Dimaculangan, Mika Reyes, Remy Palma, Sisi Rondina, Bernadeth Pons, Ces Molina and Aiza Maizo-Pontillas.

“This is not yet over. All we have to do is to go back to the drawing board and prepare for Game Three,” he stressed.