Petron faces lowly SLR; Foton eyes fifth win

MANILA, Philippines — Top meets bottom as unbeaten Petron takes on winless Sta. Lucia in today’s Philippine Superliga All-Filipino Conference action at the Filoil Flying V Centre.

The 4:15 p.m. encounter features the defending Blaze Spikers gunning for their sixth straight victory versus a Lady Realtors side that plummeted to 0-6 after bungling a two-set cushion in a five-set heartbreaker to Cocolife last Saturday.

The Asset Managers (1-4) seek to sustain the gains from that breakthrough victory as they face  redemption-seeking Foton (4-1) at 2 p.m. while Cignal HD (3-3) shoots for solo fourth when it tangles with Smart (2-3) at 7 p.m.  

Although heavily favored against the injury-riddled Lady Realtors, Petron coach Shaq delos Santos wouldn’t want his charges to slack off.

“Para sa amin, lahat ng games at mga kalaban importante so kailangang focused at consistent kami every game,” he said.

Meanwhile, Cocolife hopes to emerge from its come-from-behind 21-25, 23-25, 25-18, 25-10, 15-8 thriller over SLR more confident especially ranged against the Tornadoes, who had racked up four straight wins before dropping a three-setter to F2 Logistics last Thursday.

“The biggest thing we’re trying to work for is confidence and that win will help us going into the next matches because it’s really hard to get that,” said Cocolife ace Kalei Mau, whose team had lost a pair of five-set losses before finally breaking through. “(We were) close to a win (before) but always get letdown because we didn’t do enough. But last Saturday we did enough so I’m proud of the team.”

The third game sees the HD Spikers in an effort to get back on track after absorbing a 22-25, 16-25, 19-25 setback to Petron in a battle with the Giga Hitters, who themselves are out for redemption after their 19-25, 12-25, 15-25 decision to streaking Generika Ayala.

“I want them to be more confident against any team – be it a team-to-beat like Petron or any other team,” said Cignal coach Edgar Barroga, who leans on veterans Rachel Anne Daquis, Jheck Dionela, Mumay Vivas and Acy Masangkay against a dangerous team like Smart.