Petron torches Foton in PSL Invitational
Petron bounced back strong from its first setback of the tourney, venting its ire on Foton, 26-24, 22-25, 25-19, 25-21, last night in the final round of the Belo Philippine Superliga (PSL) Invitational Conference at the Filoil Flying V Center in San Juan.
Veteran Aiza Maizo-Pontillas took charge while Frances Molina, Mina Aganon and Mika Reyes provided solid support as the Blaze Spikers regained their form ahead of their showdown with Kobe Shinwa Women’s University.
The Japanese squad, which clobbered the Tornadoes in four sets late Thursday, was still clashing with Cignal at press time.
Maizo-Pontillas registered 15 kills while Molina, Aganon and Reyes combined for 35 points to lead Petron, which suffered a heart-rending four-set loss to Cignal Thursday at the start of the final round of the tourney sponsored by Asics, Mikasa, Mueller and Senoh with TV5 as official broadcast partner.
“We’re so thankful because we won our second game in the final round,” said Petron coach Shaq Delos Santos. “We believe that anything can still happen. We’re facing a strong team tomorrow (tonight). We’ll do everything to win over them.”
Earlier, Cocolife outlasted Sta. Lucia Realty, 25-23, 23-25, 25-17, 12-25, 15-11, to boost its shot at fourth.
Rose Vargas and Michele Gumabao provided the spark in a torrid rally down the stretch to put Cocolife a win short of topping the classification battle for fourth to sixth spots.
Vargas spearheaded the assault with 18 kills for a gamehigh 20 points while Gumabao nailed 18 markers for the Asset Managers.
“We benefited from our previous tuneup with Japanese team,” said Cocolife coach Obet Javier, the architect of Arellano University’s rise to NCAA women’s volleyball stardom.