STA. Lucia Realty and Cignal seek to boost their respective chances for a quarterfinal incentive when they tackle separate foes in the Chooks to Go-Philippine Superliga Grand Prix today at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.
The Lady Realtors tip things off when they clash with unbeaten Petron at 4:15 p.m., while the HD Spikers battle reigning champion F2 Logistics in the 7 p.m. featured encounter of this prestigious women’s club tourney bankrolled by Isuzu and UCPB Gen with ESPN5 as official broadcast partner.
The protagonists in the action-packed finals showdown last year—Petron and F2 Logistics—have already safely secured the first two twice-to-beat incentives in the quarterfinals, leaving Cocolife, Foton, Cignal and Sta. Lucia in a heated battle for the two remaining slots.
Unfortunately, the Lady Realtors and the HD Spikers kicked off the second round of this tourney that also has Senoh, Mikasa, Asics, LGR and Grand Sport as technical sponsors on a sorry note.
Sta. Lucia suffered a 20-25, 18-25, 25-20, 22-25 setback to Cocolife while Cignal absorbed a 23-25, 25-27, 25-21, 30-32 loss to Foton in a pair of blockbuster matches last Tuesday.
With that, both the Lady Realtors and the HD Spikers have to win their last two games in the classification phase to gain at least a shot at the last two twice-to-beat incentives in the quarterfinals.
For Cignal coach Edgar Barroga, the road to a twice-to-beat advantage got rocky.
“We’re looking at Foton to be our quarterfinal opponent so our loss last Tuesday was really a sad development,” said Barroga, vowing that they will go all out when they face F2 Logistics and Generika-Ayala in their next two matches in the classification round.
“But it is what it is. All we have to do now is to go all out and keep a positive attitude because we may never know what will happen in the next few games. If we win our next two games, then we’ll have a shot at the twice-to-beat advantage.”