Tired and emotionally drained after a roller-coaster that was Game 2 on Tuesday night, Petro Gazz head coach Oliver Almadro was still all smiles as he emerged from a silent Angels dugout at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
The uber-intense head coach knows that Petro Gazz still has one last shot at glory on Thursday. And after the fight that her wards showed in their heartbreaking five-set loss, Almadro knows very well that they are still in it.
With that, the triple-crown Spikers’ Turf and two-division UAAP champion coach made a promise.
“We’ll forget about this and we’ll bounce back in Game Three,” said a smiling Almadro before walking away and meeting his family at the other end of the hallway.
Disappointing was the result of Game Two for the Angels after an epic Game One win just last Sunday.
Coming off a stunning four-set win against the defending All-Filipino Conference champion, Petro Gazz opened the second game of the finals series with a lopsided 25-18 victory.
The Angels looked like they had the upper hand early in the game but the Cool Smashers showed their championship poise and took the next two to move to a set away from sending the series to a Game Three.
Petro Gazz rallied back in the fourth frame and put on a massive comeback to force a fifth set only to get whipped by the Cool Smashers, who went on a red-hot 8-0 blast early in the decider to take the fight out of the Angels and live to fight another day.
On Thursday, Almadro hopes that he can finally have the David and Goliath ending that he has been dreaming of.
