To kickoff their postseason campaign, the 10-0 Petron Blaze Spikers have been on a constant upswing since the commencement of the PSL All-Filipino Conference.
Today, they shall face the resurgent Philips Gold Lady Slammers at the Cuneta Astrodome. The winner of the match will automatically barge into the championship round.
Although the team was able to sweep the entire elimination round, Petron is still wary about their tendency to be complacent in the game and their issue of having prolonged scoring droughts which often gives a glimmer of hope to the opposition.
For gritty middle blocker Abigail Maraño, however, it’s all about wanting it more than the opponent, and about not losing focus with the task at hand.
“Hindi kami huminto kung saan kami nagsimula. Kailangan namin maging mas eager na malampasan pa ‘yung nakita sa amin ng mga tao,” Maraño said on Petron’s upcoming playoff march. “Ang importante sa team is iisa lang gusto niyo and nagkakaintindihan kayo.”
Moreover, Maraño remarked that everything will fall into the right place if the team puts their trust in each other. In other words, the team’s kryptonite is against itself. Recalling a few games wherein they started slow, particularly against the Cignal HD Spikers and the Shopinas.com Lady Clickers, the team must learn from their mistakes and execute their game plan the second time around.
And in the playoffs, there is always little room for error.
“Kung baga sa lahat ng pagkakamali mo, mayroon kang natutunan. Isa iyon sa mga factors kung bakit kami nagpush na makuha ang ten games at [hopefully] coming into the Finals dadalhin pa rin namin,” Maraño ended. “Dapat magtiwala kami na malakas ang team mo at the same time hindi ka pwedeng pumayag na magpatalo kasi may nasimulan ka na. Ang sabi nga namin hindi importante ang nagawa namin, ang importante kung paano natin tatapusin itong laban na ito sa Superliga.”
The winner of the Petron versus Philips Gold match will face the winner of the other semifinals clash between Shopinas and the Foton Tornadoes come the championship round. Game one of the best-of-three championship series will be this coming May 11, 4:15 pm, at Imus, Cavite.
