RUBBER MATCH

Chery Tiggo pulled off a miracle after posting a reverse sweep against Petro Gazz, 16-25, 11-25, 25-13, 25-22, 18-16 to stay alive for a third-place finish Sunday in the 2024 Premier Volleyball League All-Filipino Conference at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Eya Laure steered the Crossovers to victory by delivering the final blows in the deciding set while Shaya Adorador, Seth Rodriguez, and Jasmine Nabor stepped up in the last three sets as the Crossovers leveled the best-of-three battle for bronze series with the Angels at 1-all.

“I’m thankful that even though I’m young in our circle, they don’t treat me as a kid. Even though there were times that I yelled at them, they listened to me. Even though I yelled at them, it’s not my intention to bring them down,” Laure said.

“It’s just to boost them because the more quiet we are, the more we would lack appetite (to win).”

Laure exploded with 26 points from 24 attacks and two blocks, while Adorador, Nabor, and Rodriguez dished out 10, nine, and eight points, respectively in the last three sets alone.

Paat also hammered down 12 attacks and three blocks for the Crossovers, while Aby Marano ended up with four, Ara Galang and Cza Carandang with three points apiece, EJ Laure with two, and Alina Bicar and Pauline Gaston added a point each.

The Crossovers rode the momentum from outhustling the Angels in the third and fourth sets to keep up with their foes in the nip-and-tuck fifth set.

With Petro Gazz’s Jonah Sabete denied of an attack at 14-all, Nabor leveled up by hammering down two consecutive attacks through the blockers. Brooke Van Sickle leveled the score at 16-16 with an attack of her own but the younger Laure was locked in as she smote two consecutive attacks to seal the win.

“At first, our first unit was unstable. Their movements are not materializing. So that’s when we shuffled our players, we literally shuffled them. We had to try, at least, to give our second unit a good playing time,” Chery Tiggo head coach Kungfu Reyes said.

“What’s good is that they played well, they performed well so that our main gunners can rely on them.”

On the other hand, Brooke Van Sickle’s humongous 30 points, five aces, and one block, Sabete’s 18 points from 16 attacks and two blocks, and Pontillas and Phillips’ 10 points apiece were not enough after failing to close out in the last three sets.

Djanel Cheng also ended up with 21 excellent sets, most of which went to Sabete, before the Crossovers made the right adjustments to shut down the setup. Remy Palma also dished out seven points, Myla Pablo added two, and Ivy Perez chipped in one, in Petro Gazz’s loss.