F2 LOGISTICS BOOKS FINALS BERTH, RIPS COCOLIFE
F2 Logistics unleashed its full force enough to overwhelm Cocolife, 25-17, 25-16, 25-17, Saturday night and reach the championship round of the Chooks to Go-Philippine Superliga Grand Prix at Mall of Asia Arena.
Venezuelan reinforcement Maria Jose Perez banged in seven of her 18 points in the third set as the Cargo Movers crushed whatever plans the Asset Managers had of coming back in the match.
F2 Logistics thus made its first appearance in a Grand Prix final and will face either Foton or Petron, which were still locked in battle in the other semifinal duel.
“We showed today that we are really solid team,” said the 29-year-old Perez who played for her country in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. “We were focused from the beginning and mentally we were ready for anything.”
Cocolife, whose target for this conference was to make the Final Four, failed to push its luck further against the juggernaut of F2 Logistics’ offense. It led 6-3 and then 1110 in the third through Tai Manu-Olevau, who had 13 attacks, but simply couldn’t sustain that level.
Known for a strong lineup and a solid system, the Cargo Movers also solved their usual slow start as they stormed to an 11-2 opening in the first frame in a steady rhythm of power serves and combination attacks.
“It doesn’t matter who we play [in the finals], the important
thing is that we will go out there and play at our level and do our job,” added Perez.
Kim Fajardo flicked in 25 excellent sets for the Blaze Spikers to add to the Asset Managers’ troubles, on top of which was their excessive errors, throwing away 27 points, 10 of them in the second set alone.
With Kennedy Bryan, Aby Maraño and Kim Kiana Dy helping out, the Cargo Movers unloaded 37 attacks against 28 by the Asset Managers.
F2 Logistics coach Ramil de Jesus said his team is ready for the best-of-three championships series, which starts on Tuesday.
But he maintained that they would need to improve more on blocking and passing. F2 Logistics had five blocks against four by Cocolife.
F2 Logistics did bedevil Cocolife with its service game, which helped set up the team’s offense.