CANDON, ILOCOS SUR — Petro Gazz staved off a spirited Nxled, 25-23, 25-21, 25-22, for share of the pole position in the Premier Volleyball League Second All-Filipino Conference, Saturday night at the Candon City Arena here.
The Angels had to overcome a motivated Chameleons in a tight third set to bag their third consecutive win to open the tourney and tie Creamline at the top spot with twin 3-0 records while the Chameleons remained at the eighth slot, tied with Cignal with 1-2 standings.
Aside from that, the veteran-laden Petro Gazz also had to power through the absence of their head coach Timmy Sto. Tomas. Filling in for Sto. Tomas is assistant coach Vince Mangulabnan.
“Well, we expected naman that Nxled will put up a good fight. They have a good system and a good coach as well but yun, we just prepared for this game, for this match, and lunabas din yung pagka-beterano ng team eh,” said Angels assistant coach Stephen Patrona.
Down two sets to none, Nxled threatened to extend the third set after Judith Abil delivered a cross-court hit that broke a 20-all deadlock and put the young team ahead.
However, Aiza Maizo-Pontillas and Djanel Cheng engineered a 4-0 run that took the fight out of the Chameleons. Camille Victoria saved a point after the brushing the ball off Nicole Tiamzon’s hand, but a service error from Kamille Cal ultimately ended the match.
“Actually, nung nung umpisa kasi the girls are rushing eh. Medyo pinabagalan namin yung game tapos pina-relax lang kasi we have a strong defense naman so makakaya namin yung opensa ng Nxled,” added Patrona.
Maizo-Pontillas paced the Angels with 15 points on 13 attacks and two blocks to go along with 10 excellent digs while Grethcel Soltones and Jonah Sabete added 11 and 10 points, respectively, in an hour and 36 minutes of game time.
Djanel Cheng tossed 10 excellent sets in the win while Babylove Barbon had 13 excellent digs and four excellent receptions.
Petro Gazz will face F2 Logistics on Thursday, 6:00 p.m. at the Santa Rosa Sports Complex in Laguna.
The Chamelons, who slid to 1-2 tied with Cignal at the eighth spot, were led by Lycha Ebon and Camille Victoria with 10 points each.
On the other hand, Nxled will take on PLDT to end its slump earlier that day at 2:00 p.m.
