SMART-Army and Generika-Ayala shoot for the last semifinal berth in a no-tomorrow quarterfinals showdown today in the Philippine Superliga (PSL) Invitational Conference at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan City.
The match is set at 7 p.m. with the Giga Hitters and Lifesavers fighting for the right to face outright semifinalist Petron on Saturday at the Muntinlupa Sports Center.
The loser of the match will be relegated to the battle for fifth place against Sta. Lucia Realty.
F2 Logistics bagged the third semifinals seat and will face unbeaten Cignal also on Saturday in a knock-out match.
Foton and University of the Philippines-United Auctioneers, meanwhile, clash for seventh place at 4:15 p.m., while Cocolife and University of the East-Cherrylume battle for ninth place at 2 p.m. in the consolation round.
Generika-Ayala and Smart-Army, which won three of their four preliminary games in their respective groups, are eyeing their first semifinals stint.
Lifesavers Head Coach Sherwin Meneses vowed to go all out for their first last four appearance.
“We will have a lot of adjustments on offense because our players are not so tall,” Meneses said. “But when it comes to defense, we will not have any problem since it has been our advantage for our past wins.
The Giga Hitters, on the other hand, are looking to recover from a winless conference debut in the previous Grand Prix.
“Reaching the quartefinals is big for us in a sense that Smart had zero wins last conference,” Smart Head Coach Kungfu Reyes. “But we need to sustain our performance as we face a tougher and more exciting battle.”