Superliga locals tipped to spark SEAG squad

MANILA, Philippines — The explosive performance of some national team members in the Philippine Superliga Grand Prix could spill over to the 30th Southeast Asian Games.

PSL president Ian Laurel said he was greatly impressed by the performance of local players who stood their ground against foreign stars like Katherine Bell and Stephanie Niemer of Petron, Maria Jose Perez and Lindsay Stalzer of F2 Logistics and Grace Lazard of PLDT Home Fibr.

Laurel said this impressive performance could be carried against Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam when the country competes in the biennial meet starting November.

“Our level of play had definitely increased,” said Laurel during the weekly Philippine Sportswriters Association forum.

“Like Dawn Macandili, she can receive and defend the strong hits from the imports. Even some coaches also noticed that they could now play to the level of the imports,” he added. 

Aside from Macandili, also churning out impressive performance in the Grand Prix were national team captain Aby Marano and Majoy Baron of F2 Logistics, Denden Lazaro and Mika Reyes of Petron and Mylene Paat of Cignal.

Head coach Shaq Delos Santos, who steered Petron to its second straight Grand Prix crown, said he was impressed with the performance of Reyes and Lazaro, especially in training.

“We know how strong Kat Bell is,” he said. “They manage to stop her during training. So I think we have a good chance in the SEA Games.”

Delos Santos said they will kick off their training on May 21 then go full blast after the All-Filipino Conference in August.
Also in the 20-woman pool are stalwarts Jaja Santiago, Dindin Manabat, Alyssa Valdez, Jia Morado, Kalei Mau, Alohi Robins-Hardy and MJ Philips.

“We will start around the third week of May,” he said. “Then after the All-Filipino, we’re going full blast.”

“Putting everything together is tough. But all I can say is that we will definitely fight for our country no matter what.”