PLDT and Cignal seek to join Petron in the semifinals when they collide with separate foes in the quarterfinals of the Philippine Superliga Grand Prix today at the Filoil Flying V Centre.
Armed with a twice-to-beat edge, the Power Hitters aim to book a return flight to the semis when the clash with dangerous Generika-Ayala at 4 p.m. while the HD Spikers face United VC in the 6 p.m. main encounter of this prestigious women’s club league backed by Asics, Mueller, Mikasa, Senoh, Team Rebel Sports, Bizooku, UCPB Gen, Cocolife, Hotel Sogo and Data Project.
Petron, which swept the classifications to emerge as top seed in the quarterfinals, made short work of Sta. Lucia to become the first team in the best-of-three semifinal series.
On the other hand, the Blaze Spikers’ main rival—F2 Logistics—was not as fortunate as it suffered a nail-biting fives-set loss to Foton in the other quarterfinal battle.
That makes this explosive double-header that has ESPN5 and 5Plus as broadcast partners very exciting as both Generika-Ayala and United VC are optimistic that they can forge a rubber match if they play superb volleyball from start to finish.
United VC, for one, will be bringing in a new import in Thai star Sutadta Chuewulim to revive their title hopes after failing to clinch the quarterfinal bonus.
Chuewulim, who arrived Sunday and joined United VC in practice on Monday, is tipped to hit the ground running as she is no stranger to Philippine brand of volleyball. In fact, she already saw action for Cagayan Valley in the Shakey’s V-League before campaigning for guest team EST Cola in the PSL Invitational Conference in 2016.
Although the Thai juniors team fell prey to veteran-laden RC Cola-Army in the finals, Chuewulim still made her presence felt as she brought home the Best Outside Spiker award.
“With Sutadta on board, we will have another potent scoring option,” said Ylaya, adding that the Thai will replace American Tai Manu-Olevao in their rotation.
“We played without an import for four games. We could have bagged a twice-to-beat edge had we played with an import in our past few games. But now that Sutadta is here, we expect to be competitive to give Cignal a very good fight.”
But bringing down the HD Spikers is easier said than done.
Cignal is beaming with confidence as imports Erica Wilson and Anastasiya Artemeva are playing beautiful music with local stars like Rachel Anne Daquis, Acy Masangkay, Mylene Paat and Janine Navarro.
Cignal coach Edgar Barroga said they will do their best to win over United VC because yielding their twice-to-beat edge will only put pressure on them in the sudden-death.
“I don’t want to focus on that (twice-to-beat advantage). We will play as if it’s a do-or-die match,” said Barroga, who knows that they have to neutralize Alohi Robins-Hardy, Kalei Mau and import Yaasmeen Bedart-Ghani if they want to advance.
“It’s very important for us to take this match because if we allow them to force a decider it will be very difficult.””‹