King Whale of Taipei bared its fangs early as it overcame a gritty Army Black Mamba, 26-24, 25-18, 26-24, yesterday to jumpstart its campaign in the Premier Volleyball League Invitational at the MOA Arena.
Beatriz Flavio de Carvalho, a 24-year-old opposite hitter from Brazil, paced the Taiwanese club team with 14 points including 13 on spikes while Chen Li-Jun and Wang Yu-Wen scattered 10 hits apiece.
Skipper Liao Ji-Yen was also instrumental especially in keeping the team together and finished with 22 excellent sets while contributing a hit.
It was a victory that set in motion the bid of the Teng Yen-Min-mentored King Whale squad to prove its worth against the best the country could offer.
And it will have its chance as it squares off with the top three teams in the league – PLDT today at MOA Arena, Creamline on Friday at the Filoil EcoOil Centre and Cignal on Saturday also in San Juan.
While it was an impressive start to King Whale’s campaign, it was never a walk in the park.
Army, in fact, appeared to have taken control in the third set when it seized 21-19, 24-23 leads mostly from the heroics of team captain Jovelyn Gonzaga and Jem Nicole Gutierrez.
The Lady Troopers closed out their campaign with a 0-4 record in the semis and wound up fifth.
In the other game, Creamline dished out its best game of the conference as it annihilated elimination-round tormentor Cignal, 25-17, 25-15, 25-22, to close in on a finals berth with a perfect 3-0 card in the five-team semis.
The HD Spikers dropped to 1-2.
