MANILA, Philippines — Top seed Quezon found lowest-ranked Rizal St. Gerrard Charity Foundation a tough nut to crack before hacking out a 25-22, 25-23, 23-25, 19-25, 15-10 win to reach the 2024 Maharlika Pilipinas Volleyball Association (MPVA) finals yesterday at the Bacoor Strike Gym in Cavite.
The Tangerines blew a two-sets-to-none lead but recovered to salvage the match and advance to the title playoff versus the winner between No. 2 Bacoor and No. 3 Biñan.
Quezon, which topped the elims with a 14-2 slate, is one of the two expansion squads in the nine-team upstart league founded by former senator and MPBL chairman Manny Pacquiao.
And it wasn’t a walk in the park as Quezon needed Rhea Mae Densing’s heroics with 29 points to survive a strong resistance from Rizal.
Francis Mycah Go complemented Densing big time with 23 points as the two seasoned spikers combined for eight points in the fifth set, where the Tangerines just ran away to take down Rizal.