Philips Gold Lady Slammers survived the offensive whiplash of Shopinas.com Lady Clickers in five sets, 25-11, 16-25, 25-20, 13-25, and 15-11, in their second round face-off in the Philippine Superliga All-Filipino Conference, this afternoon at the FilOil-Flying V Arena in San Juan.
Philips Gold had a dominant start with enough firepower to keep Shopinas at bay, by pulling away with double-digit leads early into the opening set. The Lady Clickers tried to recover, but the Lady Slammers were too hot to handle. The set ended in a lopsided 25-11, in favor of Philips Gold.
However, things turned around for the Lady Slammers in the following frame of the match as they failed to sustain their rhythm from the first set, and they ended up playing catch-up volleyball for most of the set. Philips Gold closed within four, 18-14, but that proved to be the closest they could reach when Shopinas pounded the Lady Slammers’ defense and cruised to a 25-16 second set victory.
Both teams, tied with one set apiece, made it a close third set affair with six deadlocks, in contrast to the first two sets of the match. From a 14-all knot, Philips Gold pulled away to form a five-point cushion, 20-15. Shopinas, however, did not want another blowout margin to occur as they closed within two, 22-20, but the Lady Slammers hit three straight points to gain the upper hand of the match, 2-1, and owning the third, 25-20.
The Lady Slammers started well in the fourth set, hard-pressed to end the match at four sets. However, their good start was easily spoiled when Shopinas bounced back from the third set loss, and gave Philips Gold’s net defense a beating. From a 15-10 advantage, Shopinas widened the gap to ten, 20-10, after a violation from the Lady Slammer’s side. An open hit from Lady Slammer, Michele Gumabao, trimmed Philips Gold’s deficit to nine, 21-12, but two points from Shopinas’ attacks and two errors from Philips Gold closed the fourth set, 25-13. Thus, equalizing the match with two sets for both teams.
The fifth set was, once again, started well by Philips Gold, cruising to a quick 8-3 lead before switching sides on the court. That switching of sides seemed to be a game-changer for the Lady Clickers, as they earned enough points off attacks to inch within one, 12-11, after an open hit from Charleen Cruz. The Lady Clickers, however, were unable to tie the set at 12-all, for a service error and an outside hit gave away points to Philips Gold, 14-11. Shopinas tried to get back into the fold, but Gumabao sealed the match with a down-the-line hit to win it for the Lady Slammers, 15-11.
Four Lady Slammers scored in double figures. Myla Pablo scored 18 points with 15 spikes, while Gumabao supplied 15 points off of 15 spikes. Desiree Dadang and Iris Tolenada had 14 and 10, respectively. Stephanie Mercado led Shopinas with 19 points in a losing effort.
With the win, Philips Gold now holds a 3-4 win-loss slate, while Shopinas’ loss dropped them to 3-3, tied with Foton.
Philips Gold will face Cignal HD tomorrow. Meanwhile, Shopinas, will go against Mane ‘n Tail on that same day.
The Scores:
Philips Gold (3): Pablo 18, Gumabao 15, Dadang 14, Tolenada 10, Adorador 9, Fajardo 1, Mallare 1, Mea 1, Gohing (L), Crisostomo (L)
Shopinas.com (2): Mercado 19, Cruz 13, Dy 9, Laborte 9, Mandapat 8, Cheng 3, Tan 3, Angustia 1, General (L), Sison (L)
