IT will be D-Day today for all eight teams—men and women—in the semifinals of the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) Season 2 Reinforced Conference at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan City.
Creamline and Pocari-Air Force squares off at 1:45 p.m. and PayMaya tangles with BanKo-Perlas at 3:45 p.m. in the women’s semifinals that went to the limit.
The men’s semifinals also goes down the wire with Cignal and PLDT facing off at 10 a.m. and Vice Co. and Air Force taking the court at 6 p.m.
The Cool Smashers beat the Lady Warriors, 25-16, 26-24, 22-25, 25-17, while the High Flyers stayed alive with a nail-biting 28-26, 25-16, 25-27, 25-27, 15-12 Game Two victory over BanKo Perlas Spikers on Wednesday.
In the men’s side also on Wednesday, the Blockbusters forced the rubber match with a 25-22, 16-25, 25-23, 29-31, 17-15 over the Jet Spikers, while PLDT upset Cignal also in five sets, 22-25, 27-25, 20-25, 25-22, 15-11.
Given the strength and talent of the protagonists and the weight of the matches, one can expect only the best from Creamline, Pocari-Air Force, PayMaya and BanKo-Perlas as they go for the the finals slots.
The Cool Smashers and High Flyers seized the momentum with their Game Two wins but the Lady Warriors and the Perlas Spikers have the experience needed to bounce back from tough setbacks, guaranteeing a pair of explosive matches capping the semis phase of the season-opening conference of the league organized by Sports Vision.
Unlike in the series’ opener, top spiker Alyssa Valdez drew solid backup from the team’s other stalwarts, including Michelle Gumabao, who atoned for a five-point output in Game One with a top-scoring 18-hit effort. Thai reinforcement Kuttika Kaewpin also scored 14 points after struggling for six and fellow import Laura Schaudt settled down from a measly one-hit game on Sunday with 10 points.
“Everybody really wanted to win,” said Valdez, who turned in the team’s only double-digit output in Game One with 16 then followed it up with 15 points. “We actually talked about our Game One loss and we made the adjustments. We showed that in Game Two and we hope to sustain it in the do-or-die.”