Cignal bounced back from a tough third set loss to thwart Galeries Tower as it carved out a 25-17, 25-17, 24-26, 25-11 victory to gain solo sixth in the Premier Volleyball League Second All-Filipino Conference at the Philsports Arena late Tuesday night.
All set for a sweep of the winless Highrisers, the HD Spikers stumbled at the finish after setter Gel Cayuna forced a 24-all count, leading to Ysa Jimenez's back-to-back points as the former stunned their highly fancied rivals and extended the match.
But the slip hardly shook off the HD Spikers’ confidence as they joined hands again in the fourth and stormed to an 18-7 lead. Roma Joy Doromal and Raprap Aguilar rattled off a 4-1 spurt to cut the lead to 11-19 but that was the closest that the Highrisers could get as Jerrili Malabanan, Rose Doria and Jovelyn Gonzaga countered and closed it out with a decisive 6-0 run.
“Siempre thank you kay Lord sa panalo. Malaking factor sa amin ‘to. Credits sa Galeries kasi ang ganda nung naging performance nila especially sa third set. No. 1 yung service nila, naging consistent talaga, sobrang hard service yung mga binigay nila,” said Cignal head coach Shaq delos Santos.
Nevertheless, Cignal sustained its big rebound from back-to-back shutout losses to Creamline and Choco Mucho as it improved to 4-2 midway through its elims campaign in the season-ending conference of the league organized by Sports Vision.
“Pero para samin lesson learned lang yung nangyari and part nung process para mas maging matibay and marami kaming ma realize and kailangan maging mas aggresive pa kami,” said delos Santos.
Ces Molina topscored for the HD Spikers with 17 points to go along with 16 excellent digs and 11 excellent receptions while Vanie Gandler added 14 points on 14 attacks in the one-hour and 50-minute match.
Gonzaga added 12 points while Doria had 11 points, highlighted by three kill blocks.
Cayuna glued things together with 21 excellent sets while adding four points even as Jheck Dionela and Gelai Nunag posted nine excellent digs and nine excellent receptions, respectively.
Jimenez led the way for the Highrisers with 14 points on 12 attacks and two aces and added 11 excellent receptions while Doromal had 11 points on nine attacks, one block and an ace for Galeries, which dropped to 0-5.
The Highrisers clash with the PLDT High Speed Hitters tomorrow (Thursday) while Cignal slugs it out with Petro Gazz on Saturday.
