Cignal did what six other teams failed to accomplish against the mighty ZUS Coffee in the 2025 Premier Volleyball League (PVL) Reinforced Conference — emerge on top.

Erika Santos took the spotlight on offense while Vanie Gandler delivered the crucial hits down the stretch as the Super Spikers put a dent in the erstwhile unbeaten Thunderbelles, 25-12, 26-24, 25-23, in the second round of the preliminaries on Thursday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Santos rose to the occasion, posting 19 points, including the finishing touches to seal Cignal’s second straight victory to improve to a 4-3 win-loss record in Pool C and stay alive in the race for a quarterfinals seat.

Meanwhile, Akari stays in playoff contention following a 25-13, 25-17, 25-22 win over Nxled in the second game of this exciting triple-header.

Annie Mitchem fired 19 kills, two blocks, and an ace for the Power Chargers, who ended their two-game skid and tied the Cignal Super Spikers for fifth place with identical 4-3 records.

“Of course, I’m just thankful for the full trust given to me by my teammates. We just stuck to our game plan and thankfully it worked,” said Santos, who had 13 kills and three kill blocks.

The opposite spiker took charge of the Super Spikers’ offense as Slovakian import Katrin Trebichavska took a backseat with 13 points.

Her explosion gave ZUS Coffee problems on defense and when the Thunderbelles tried to zero in on Santos, Cignal setter Gel Cayuna activated other hitters in Trebichavska, Gandler, Rose Doria-Aquino and Jackie Acuna.

“Honestly, I don’t look at the team we’re against. I guess my focus is on how my teammates are playing and how we jell. But thankful because every time we play against ZUS, we get good results,” Santos added.

Gandler had seven points in just two sets of play off the bench, Doria-Aquino and Acuna scored six each while Cayuna tallied 21 excellent sets on top of six markers for Cignal, which also ended the PLDT’s 15-game winning streak dating back to the PVL On Tour via sweep in the first round.  

The Super Spikers had a hard time shaking off the desperate Thunderbelles in the third frame after American Anna DeBeer tied the set at 20 off back-to-back kills.

Gandler fired a personal 3-1 run to give Cignal a 23-21 advantage.

DeBeer kept ZUS Coffee in the game with consecutive hits for a 23-23 deadlock, but Santos scored an off-the-block kill followed by a well-timed denial against Chinnie Arroyo to end the one-hour, 29-minute encounter.

“Proud of the team because they worked very hard for this win. Super happy we got our goal. Good thing we remained focused on the process and how to move right inside the court,” Cignal coach Shaq delos Santos said.

“This is a huge boost for us because we really need wins to get into the quarterfinals.”

DeBeer finished with 26 points, all from kills, but was the only ZUS Coffee player in double figures.

The Thunderbelles retained their hold of the top spot overall with a 6-1 slate.

Thea Gagate had five points, AC Miner and Chinnie Arroyo had three each but Jovelyn Gonzaga was limited to just a single point as a starter in all sets for ZUS Coffee.