It was a bittersweet ending to the PVL All-Filipino Conference for PLDT’s Savi Davison, as she and the High Speed Hitters shocked perennial powerhouse Creamline in four sets to end their campaign on a high Thursday night.
Davison uncorked 27 points in the breakthrough victory to help PLDT to their first-ever franchise win over the Cool Smashers, 22-25, 25-22, 25-14, 27-25 at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City.
The Fil-Canadian hitter’s scoring output, built on 25 attacks, one block, and an ace, earns her a second PVL Press Corps Player of the Week presented by Pilipinas Live citation.
Davison was the unanimous choice for the plum for the period of April 23 to 27, taking all of the 16 votes from the print and online scribes covering the league organized by Sports Vision.
The wing spiker showed out in the non-bearing game, after the High Speed Hitters were officially knocked out of the semis race earlier that game day, with the Chery Tiggo Crossovers sealing their place in the next round with the win over the Galeries Tower Highrisers.
Even with their conference ending before their final match, Davison was adamant about giving their best against one of the PVL’s top teams.
“Like Kath (Arado) said, we just had to give it our all since there’s nothing that we could lose,” Davison said.
“Thinking about it now, we beat the top two teams in the conference. It kind of shows a lot that when we show up, when we put our best out there, the sky’s the limit,” she added.
Davison beat out semis-bound nominees for the plum, including Choco Mucho’s Sisi Rondina, Chery Tiggo’s Eya Laure, and Petro Gazz’s Brooke Van Sickle, as they are set to continue on to the next round in the league, which is being streamed live at Pilipinas Live app and www.pvl.ph.
Ivy Lacsina of the Nxled Chameleons, Gel Cayuna of the Cignal HD Spikers, Grethcel Soltones of the Akari Chargers, and Trisha Tubu of Farm Fresh completed the list of the nominees for the weekly citation.
With their conference campaign coming to a close, Davison looks forward to a more productive second conference later this year, as the High Speed Hitters target the semis anew in the 2024 PVL season.
“I think from that and just being able to show up without that motivation, that extra ‘we can get into semis’ (mindset). So knowing that and going into next [conference], using that and putting it forward, it’s gonna be really helpful in terms of adding that motivation and adding that determination knowing that we were capable of what we did tonight.” she said.
