Chery Tiggo and Akari, which launched their respective Premier Volleyball League All-Filipino Conference bids with victories in varying fashions Tuesday, go for a second win against rivals of contrasting reputes as action shifts to the Filoil Ecooil Centre in San Juan City on Thursday.
The fancied Crossovers flirted with disaster but banked on their experience to rally from a series of big deficits and frustrate the Farm Fresh Foxies, 25-21, 25-23, 25-22, while the Chargers pulled off an ego-boosting 21-25, 25-20, 27-25, 19-25, 15-8 reversal over the F2 Logistics Cargo Movers.
Those victories, along with the Petro Gazz Angels’ 21-11, 26-24, 25-22 romp over the Galeries Tower Highrisers, forced a six-way tie for the lead with opening day winners the Nxled Chameleons, the Cignal HD Spikers and the Creamline Cool Smashers.
The Crossovers and the Chargers, however, are keen on breaking into joint lead while seeking to build some kind of momentum in the single round robin elims among a record 12 teams in the league’s season-ending conference.
Chery Tiggo is expected to dish out a stronger performance against Galeries Tower at 3 p.m. while Akari will be hard-pressed against a more formidable rival in PLDT, which despite yielding a four-setter to sister team Cignal, is armed with materials needed to figure in any title race.
The Chargers and the High Speed Hitters mix it up at 5 p.m.
Choco Mucho and Farm Fresh, meanwhile, try to recover from losses to Creamline and Chery Tiggo, respectively, as they tangle in the 7 p.m. main game of another triple-bill in the tournament organized by Sports Vision and backed by Mikasa, BingoPlus, ArenaPlus, SMART, Rebisco, Milcu, Kumu, Asics and SportRadar.
Matches are aired on Pilipinas Live, PVL.ph, One Sports, One Sports+ and SMART Livestream app.
Sisters EJ and Eya Laure hope to sustain their combined 27-point showing against the Foxies with Cess Robles likely to earn a starting spot following a brilliant 10-point performance against the Foxies.
The former National U Lady Bulldog stepped up to help anchor the Crossovers’ run in the third frame, pouring in all but one of her total output before the Laures and Imee Hernandez took over in the stretch to thwart the Foxies.
Chery Tiggo actually trailed majority of the match but recovered and regrouped in time to pull off squeakers and scuttle the upset bid of one of the league’s new teams.
Eyes will also be on the Chargers, who showed a lot promise after upending the favored Cargo Movers with five players, including Dindin Manabat, Faith Nisperos, Ezra Madrigal, Trisha Genesis and Fifi Sharma, churning out double-digit scores.
The High Speed Hitters, however, will be more than ready to slow down the Chargers with coach Rald Ricafort expecting his wards to toughen up on defense while expressing confidence on their offensive prowess, led by Fil-Canadian Samantha Davison, Erika Santos and Honey Royse Tubino.
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