The PLDT High Speed Hitters got their Premier Volleyball League (PVL) Invitational Conference semifinals run off to a great start with a 25-22, 25-18, 25-21 sweep of the Army Black Mamba Lady Troopers at the FilOil EcoOil Centre on Tuesday, August 2.
Rhea Dimaculangan set up the offense brilliantly and finished with 24 excellent sets in a three-set game that still had four double-digit PLDT scorers – led by top blocker Mika Reyes’ 16 points off 15 attacks and 1 block.
Dell Palomata scored 12, while Chin Basas and Fiola Ceballos tallied 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Coming off a second-set rout loss and a 13-17 deficit midway through the third, the Army still fought back, and forced a 20-all tie off a 7-3 burst ending with a Jovelyn Gonzaga kill.
However, the Lady Troopers ran out of ammo too quickly as the High Speed Hitters cruised to match point off a 4-0 response, capped by a Reyes kill off an over-receive, 24-20.
Veteran Nene Bautista only managed one saved point before Reyes finished the Army off for good with one last kill.
“I always tell them, let’s start off nicely, and we’ll finish it off nicely too. Then execute the game plan. Fortunately, we achieved that, but of course, we still have a lot of adjustments to do,” said PLDT head coach George Pascua in Filipino.
Royse Tubino paced the loss with 10 points, while Gonzaga was limited to just 6 points, albeit with 12 excellent digs.
PLDT, Army Black Mamba, Creamline, and Cignal will compete with guest teams Kobe Shinwa Women’s University of Japan and Kingwhale Taipei of Taiwan in the round-robin semifinal round.
Kobe Shinwa and Kingwhale will immediately clash in their first game of the tournament on Monday, August 8, 2:30pm at the Mall of Asia Arena. Their games will count in the new standings alongside the local teams.
The top two of the new group will immediately advance to the knockout final while the third and fourth seeds will compete in the knockout battle for bronze.
For now, PLDT will look to start a quick winning streak in their next match on Thursday, August 4, 5:30 pm, against the top-seeded Creamline Cool Smashers.
Meanwhile, the Army and the third-seeded Cignal HD Spikers will figure in the 2:30 pm opener at the Ynares Center in Antipolo City.
