It was a bad day for the Cignal franchise.
After their men’s team was swept in the Finals series over at the Spikers’ Turf, the Cignal HD Spikers suffered a crushing blow in a grueling five set match against the streaking Standard Insurance-Navy Lady Corvettes, 36-38, 25-22, 17-25, 25-20, 15-8, Wednesday evening at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan City.
Pau Soriano led the upstart Lady Corvettes with 23 markers, 20 coming from attacks and three from blocks. Lilet Mabbayad added 13 markers, majority coming in the clutch moments, while Jonah Sabete scored 14 points.
“Si Pau, Serafica, at si Mabbayad lang ang beterno sa amin,” said Navy head coach Zenaida Chavez about her young team.
The game took two hours and 20 minutes to finish; the first set alone had a 38-36 tally in favor of Cignal and took 44 minutes to finish.
“Ang haba. Gusto ata nila ng dikit na score. Kung bibigay sila e di parusa ulit,” Coach Chavez quipped.
Navy, behind Soriano, were able to bounce back in the second set but were in danger of dropping another game as Cignal bounced back with a strong third set performance.
“Normal lang magkamali but gawin lang nila habit na once magkamali, bawi kaagad,” the mentor added.
The Lady Corvettes went down early in the fourth set, 6-1. Slowly, Lilet Mabbayad willed her team to make a comeback that eventually tied the game at 10-all. The rally continued for Navy as errors mounted for the Sammy Acaylar-mentored squad. Sabete was able to find the hole twice before a long return by Cignal’s Cherry Vivas sent the game to a fifth and deciding set.
Fatigue had already set in for Cignal by the fifth set as Navy were able to gain a 7-1 edge. Consecutive net touches by the Lady Corvettes, followed by a couple of drops by Jeanette Panaga, cut the lead to just two, 7-5. A quick timeout by Navy gathered the “nervous” Lady Corvettes. Navy were able to surge ahead afterwards, capped by an off-speed attack by Mabbayad to seal the deal.
“Masarap dahil pinaghirapan nila. Kahit sila hindi nila inasahan manalo ngayon. Sanay na sila sa ganitong level ng competition,” coach Chavez concluded.
“Ngayon na nanalo sila, sabi nila ‘coach sana tuloy tuloy na.'”
Jannine Navarro and Cherry Vivas scored 18 points each to lead Cignal. Panaga added 11 markers.
Standard Insurance (2-2) will face a tough test in their next outing as their face the league-leading F2 Logistics (4-0) on Sunday, July 17 at 2:00pm. On the other hand, Cignal (0-4) look to notch their first win on the same day when they face Foton (2-2).
The Scores:
Standard Insurance (3) – Soriano 23, Sabete 14, Mabbayad 13, Eguia 9, Diaz 8, Acuna 4, Madulid 1, Dela Cruz 1, Serafica 0, Martinez 0, Ticar (L), Fortuna (L).
Cignal (2) – Navarro 18, Vivas 18, Panaga 11, Laborte 6, Tunay 5, Mandapat 5, Hingpit 4, Musa 3, Cheng 2, Llagoso 1, Berte 0, Aguilar 0, Dionela (L), Cortel (L)
