Brooke Van Sickle turned in her best game yet to power Petro Gazz’s sweep of Akari, 25-21, 25-23, 25-17, in a tight encounter for its third win in the 2024 Premier Volleyball League All-Filipino Conference, Saturday at the Filoil EcoOil Centre.
Van Sickle delivered a personal-best 24 points on 18 attacks, four aces, and two blocks to go along with six excellent digs to help the Angels record their second consecutive win and tie PLDT at the fourth spot with 3-1 slates.
“Yeah, I mean my goal for this conference is just to be consistent and I feel like my mindset going into the game is just one point at a time,” said the Fil-Hawaiian outside spiker.
“It is what it is. If you make errors, things happen and we just gotta keep rolling. Team-wise, I feel like we (hit) little ruts here in there, we gave up a lot of points inside out which, hopefully, we can get back to the gym and work on it and that it will be better,” she added.
The Chargers made a last-ditch attempt to force another set, keeping it close until the second technical timeout of the third, where they only trailed by two points, 14-16, before Van Sickle engineered the Angels’ finishing kick by scoring four points in the closing 9-3 run.
“Akari is a good team, but today also, my players did their best today. The game is a little bit so-so… We will have a practice after the game,” said Petro Gazz head coach Koji Tsuzurabara.
Jonah Sabete once again played the perfect second fiddle to Van Sickle, converting all of her 12 attack points for 12 points to go along with four excellent receptions while Aiza Maizo-Pontillas added nine markers.
Petro Gazz will go for a hattrick on Thursday, 4:00 p.m. at the Philsports Arena when it takes on Farm Fresh.
On the other hand, the Chargers, who were coming off their first win of the tournament versus Farm Fresh, slipped to the eighth spot tied with Capital1 through identical 1-3 standings.
Eli Soyud paced Akari with 13 points in the loss while Grethcel Soltones had only seven markers along with five excellent digs.
Dindin Santiago-Manabat and Faith Nisperos, who missed the team’s previous match, were limited to just four and two points, respectively.
Akari will try to bounce back versus sister team Nxled on Saturday, 6:00 p.m. at the Santa Rosa Sports Complex in Laguna.
