HEAVY HITTERS: PLDT dominates Farm Fresh, gets winning line back

PLDT rediscovered its winning ways in a mighty rebound over Farm Fresh, 25-20, 25-23, 25-23, to close its Premier Volleyball League (PVL) Reinforced Conference Pool A campaign on a bright note Thursday at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City.

Russian Elena Samoilenko showed the way for the High Speed Hitters’ fourth win in five outings, bringing their confidence back heading into the second round.

Samoilenko unleashed 22 points including timely hits in the close second and third sets as PLDT snapped the upset-seeking Foxies’ two-game winning streak.

“Happy we got through our bracket on top. Hopefully, it will give us momentum in the second group stage, crossover,” PLDT coach Rald Ricafort said.

With a 4-1 win-loss record, the High Speed Hitters along with Creamline and Chery Tiggo will go up against the bottom three teams of Pool B in defending champion Petro Gazz, Choco Mucho and Zus Coffee in another round-robin format for spots in the knockout quarterfinals.

“Actually, the teams we will face in the crossover are very strong teams like Petro Gazz and Choco Mucho so we just have to be ready. Good thing we got the momentum,” Ricafort said.

PLDT got back up after a sorry five-set loss to the Crossovers last Saturday that ended its three-game roll.

Samoilenko accounted for 20 of the High Speed Hitters’ 45 attack points and spiked her numbers with nine excellent receptions.

Fiola Ceballos provided backup on offense and defense with 11 points, all from kills, 10 digs and nine excellent receptions for PLDT, which received 18 free points off Farm Fresh’s errors.

Middle Mika Reyes added eight while Erika Santos had a quiet seven points following a string of double-digit outputs.

The Foxies put up a good challenge only to fizzle out in the closing stretch of each set in the 89-minute encounter.

Trisha Tubu led Farm Fresh, who dropped to 2-3 card, with 17 points while Colombian reinforcement Yeny Murillo had 11 points, eight excellent receptions and six digs.

The Foxies will be joined by Galeries Tower and Nxled in the second round against Pool B’s top three teams unbeaten Akari, Cignal and Capital1.