DEFENDING champion Foton takes on heavyweight Petron for the No. 1 seed in the semifinals of the Asics Philippine Superliga (PSL) Grand Prix presented by PLDT Home Ultera women’s volleyball tournament on Thursday at the Filoil Flying V Center in San Juan City.
With identical 8-1 win-loss records to share the lead, it would be hard to pick between the Tornadoes and Tri-Activ Spikers who will prevail in their 7 p.m. showdown in the interclub tournament bankrolled by Mikasa, Mueller, Grand Sport and Senoh, with TV5 as official broadcast partner.
Cignal will also try to avoid falling to No. 6 in the semifinals when it tackles RC Cola-Army in the 5 p.m. match on the final day of the preliminaries.
Dubbed as a possible preview of this year’s finals, the winner of the Foton-Petron duel would go on to seal the top spot in the semifinals set on December 3 at the Ibalong Centrum for Recreation in Legazpi City.
The top seed advances to the finals outright against the survivor of the playoff battle between the fourth- and fifth-seed teams in the semifinals.
The second seed has to overcome the winner between the third and sixth seeds in the semifinals before punching a ticket to the best-of-three finals series starting on December 8.
Foton beat Petron last season.
Petron Head Coach Shaq de los Santos anticipates another tough challenge from Foton.
“We prepared hard for this game knowing that Foton will be in full force,” said de los Santos, who hopes his wards—led by import Niemer, Frances Molina, Aiza Maizo-Pontillas, Jen Reyes, CJ Rosario and reinforcement Serena Warner—can bounce back from their first-round setback to the Tri-Activ Spikers.
Foton remains dangerous in all fronts under Serbian Head Coach Moro Branislav, who has powerful imports Lindsay Stalzer and Ariel Usher in his roster and a local crew bannered by Maika Ortiz, Rhea Dimaculangan, Dindin Santiago-Manabat and Jaja Santiago.