MANILA, Philippines – After surveying the field of the Chooks to Go-Philippine Superliga Grand Prix, Foton head coach Moro Branislav came up with an educated conclusion: This is definitely going to be the toughest tournament ever.
The seasoned Serbian tactician knows what he’s talking about.
In the Tornadoes’ first two matches, they had a hard time surviving their foes in straight sets or in less than an hour.
Two-time champion Foton opened its campaign with a four-set win over Cignal, 25-15, 25-19, 22-25, 25-22 before prevailing over Cocolife, 20-25, 25-17, 28-26, 25-18.
They defused the HD Spikers after an intense one hour and 51 minutes of battle before needing two hours and a minute to overcome the gritty Asset Managers.
So far, the longest match is Generika-Ayala’s five-set win over Cocolife, which lasted for two hours and 30 minutes, while the shortest was the straight-set victory of Petron over Generika-Ayala, which was concluded in an hour and 21 minutes of play.
“The level of competition is way better than last year,” said Branislav, who plucked the Grand Prix title last year with a rock-solid roster of Jaja Santiago, Angeli Araneta, Sisi Rondina, Rhea Dimaculangan and Americans Lindsay Stalzer and Ariel Usher as reinforcements.
“I have high respect for every team. All of them have improved tremendously.”
Branislav said two of the major reasons why the level of competition had increased to astronomical level are the presence of quality imports and the vast improvement of local players.
The Tornadoes, for one, didn’t see the need to call on Stalzer as they employed two of Branislav’s prized protégés in Serbians Katarina Vukamanovic and Sara Klisura to join Montenegrin Dragana Perunicnic at the helm.
Stalzer, the Most Valuable Player two years ago, ended up with Petron and joined veteran another veteran internationalist in Hillary Hurley of United States and Yuri Fukuda of Japan.
Another powerhouse teams, Cignal and F2 Logistics, have reliable imports in Australian national team captain Beth Carey, American blocker Alexis Matthews and Japanese libero Yuri Fukuda as well as American Kennedy Bryan and Venezuelan national team member Maria Jose Perez, respectively.
Cocolife parades Americans Tai Manu-Olevao and Taylor Milton while Generika-Ayala called on Katarina Pilepic of Croatia, Penina Snuka of United States and Darlene Ramdin, who just led Trinidad and Tobago to a slot in the FIVB World Championship in Japan next year.
Even young teams Sta. Lucia Realty and Iriga City managed to tap reliable reinforcements.
The Lady Realtors employed Canadian national team members Marisa Field and Kristen Moncks to join Ukrainian star Bohdana Anisova while the Lady Oragons parade the tallest ever import in 6-foot-6 Tamara Kmezic of Serbia as well as Japanese Saama Miyagawa and Min-min Yoshioka.
“All of the imports are playing at their best and the locals are trying to play at the same level,” said Branislav, adding that the local players’ exposure to a training camp in Japan and the AVC Asian Senior Women’s Championship and Southeast Asian Games early this year gives them the confidence to stand up against foreign players.
“For my opinion, this is great progress for the PSL. This is why it is now the biggest (volleyball) league in the Philippines.
But when asked about their own fate, Branislav failed to come up with a direct answer.
“I just don’t know if we will win it again this year. That’s something we have to work on.”