Angels take luster off Perlas Spikers, reach finals
PETROGAZZ earned its first crack at a Premier Volleyball League crown in imposing fashion yesterday, sweeping BanKo-Perlas in the Final Four to clinch the first championship berth in the Reinforced Conference.
With Cuban import Wilma Salas firing away shots from all angles and finishing with 21 attack points and two kill blocks, the top-seeded Angels bucked an opening frame scare with convincing victories in the next two, completing a 25-23, 25-18, 25-17 victory over the No. 4 Perlas Spikers before a huge weekend crowd at the Ynares Sports Center in Antipolo.
Salas’ top-scoring effort actually fell short by two off her 25-point explosion in their 25-19, 25-15, 21-25. 25-12 victory in the opener of their Final Four series last Wednesday with Johnson, who earlier unloaded 23 points, also slowing down with 13 markers after pumping in 23 hits in Game One.
But the locals provided the needed support lacking in the other camp with Jeanette Panaga and Cherry Nunag keeping the momentum of their superb showing in Game One by controlling the net and Djanel Cheng coming through with 17 of
the team’s 26 excellent sets.
Panaga turned in a nine-point game while Nunag ended up with seven points for the Angels, who blasted in 47 attack points against their rivals’ 28, and finished with eight blocks, four more than the Perlas Spikers.
PetroGazz likewise cashed in on BanKo’s sloppy reception and produced six aces, including four from Panaga.
The Angels, who placed fifth in this conference last year and bowed to the Perlas Spikers in their duel for third in the 2018 Open meet, will face the winner in the other semis face-off pitting Creamline and PacificTown Army being played at presstime.
BanKo-Perlas will dispute third place honors with the loser in the other semis pairing.
Stiix Horton, who showed a lot of promise in her 11-hit debut game for BanKo-Perlas last Wednesday, was held to 10 points while Nicole Tiamzon had eight makers and Thai reinforcement Sutadta Chuewulim and Kathy Bersola made five points apiece.
The Angels, who swept their first seven games in the double-round elims among six teams then edged second round tormentor Cool Smashers via tiebreak to clinch the top seeding, barely escaped in a back-and-forth opener but stepped up their attack in the next and kept pounding the Perlas Spikers’ net defense to complete the rout.
The Perlas Spikers’ also failed to check on their miscues that hastened their down in the series opener with the Angels scoring two of their final three points on Tiamzon and Bersola’s errors.