FLYING FOXIES

Games tomorrow:

(Smart Araneta Coliseum)

1:30 p.m. — Cignal vs ZUS Coffee

4 p.m. — Nxled vs Akari

6:30 p.m. — Choco Mucho vs Creamline

Eli Rousseaux delivered another stellar performance to help carry Farm Fresh to the quarterfinals after beating Petro Gazz, 25-21, 25-22, 21-25, 28-26, in the second phase of the 2025 Premier Volleyball League (PVL) Reinforced Conference preliminary round on Tuesday at the FilOil EcoOil Centre in San Juan.

The Belgian winger fired 27 of her game-high 31 points off attacks punctuated by back-to-back kills to seal the Foxies’ second straight victory for a 5-1 win-loss record in Pool D.

Rousseaux’s red-hot scoring also put the spotlight on Alohi Robins-Hardy’s superb playmaking.

The veteran setter tallied 21 excellent sets that allowed Farm Fresh to scatter 68 attack points. Robins-Hardy also finished with nine points, showing her offensive aggressiveness at the net.

“The chemistry that we have is unbelievable. Thank you to Coach for bringing Eli to the team because she just jelled with us perfectly. I think she’s been helping our attackers become better attackers and for me as well. They opened the floor for me to become an attacker when I’m in the front row,” Robins-Hardy said.

Farm Fresh was in control of the first two sets, struggled in the third and had a hard time shaking off the clingy Angels in the fourth frame.

The Foxies squandered a 24-23 match point advantage and had to recover from a 24-25 deficit. Farm Fresh reclaimed match point advantage but Petro Gazz American reinforcement Lindsey Vander Weide tied it at 26 before Rousseaux’s finishing touches.

“First of all, credit to the Petro Gazz team. Maybe they have not performed as well as they expected to, in some games in the first round, that’s why let’s say they’re in our group, in this position now, but we knew those guys have weapons. They have scorers, they have a lot of good and experienced players and it showed,” Foxies Italian coach Alessandro Lodi said.

“We were good enough and precise and tough enough to play two great sets, to go 2-0. That put us in a really good situation but we never saw that that would be the end, or that would make things easier moving forward.”

Trisha Tubu had 14 points and Ces Molina added 10 markers for Farm Fresh.

The Angels fell to a 3-3 slate.

Vander Weide and Brooke Van Sickle had 16 points each and MJ Phillips added 13 markers each for Petro Gazz. Ranya Musa had 10 points.