RC COLA-Army’s Jovelyn Gonzaga and F2 Logistics’s Ara Galang are out on a mission down south in Legaspi City.
Their objective? Carry their respective teams past the knockout semifinals of the Asics Philippine Superliga (PSL) Grand Prix presented by PLDT Home Ultera on Saturday at the Ibalong Centrum for Recreation.
Gonzaga, once an unassuming ace from Central Philippine University, and the Lady Troopers take on Foton at 10 a.m., while Galang, a former De La Salle University star, and the Cargo Movers clash with No. 2 Petron at 5 p.m. in a pair of no-tomorrow semifinal clashes.
In between the two semifinal matches is a clash of playoff losers Cignal and Generika at 3 p.m. to determine which team finishes fifth or sixth place.
Gonzaga admitted this is her most difficult conference yet, saying the quality of competition in the league and composition of the teams have rose rungs higher.
The Lady Troopers—also led by Rachel Anne Daquis, Honey Royse Tubino and veteran setter Tina Salak and young imports Kierra Holst and Hailie Ripley—had a roller-coaster preliminary round before ending up fourth after disposing of Generika in the playoffs.
“We’re slowly peaking. What happened in our past games gave us more drive to work harder in the semifinals,” Gonzaga said. “There’s more pressure for them [Foton] because they are on top, unlike us, we’re behind, which makes us more motivated to double time and exert extra effort.”
Galang, on the other hand, considers her team as underdog against Stephanie Niemer-led Petron, which has beaten them twice in the conference
“We are underdogs here,” said the the No.1 pick in this year’s draft, who will get adequate support from imports Cha Cruz, Kim Fajardo, Mika Reyes, Aby Marano and Dawn Macandili.
“But this is the real battle. We’ll see who the better team is and who deserves to go to the Finals,” she added.
Galang hopes to stop Niemer, who had nine service aces in their first-round duel, as well as import Serena Warner and locals Aiza Maizo-Pontillas, Frances Molina, CJ Rosario and Jen Reyes.
“We have to work on that, since Niemer had a lot of aces during our first meeting and we cannot afford to let her dominate,” Galang said.
Legazpi City Mayor Noel Rosal led the city in rolling out the red carpet for close to 200 guests, composed of players, coaches, team officials and PSL staff, managers and executives.
“The thrust of the local government right now is to promote the city,” said Rosal, who is being supported by Councilor Beth Dimaculangan and JCI Legazpi in hosting one of the league’s most important matches.