Efficient Eli: Soyud comes to Akari’s rescue
ELI Soyud delivers big time during crunchtime in Akari’s 25-22, 25-27, 22-25, 25-23, 15-12 come-from-behind victory over Farm Fresh on Tuesday in the PVL Season 10 Siklab series.
Photograph by Joey sanchez Mendoza for DAILY TRIBUNE
Games tomorrow:
(Santiago Sports Arena)
3:30 p.m. — ZUS Coffee vs PLDT
6 p.m. — Capital1 vs Creamline
It was an Eli Soyud show in the deciding frame.
The veteran winger led the way in the fifth set as Akari completed a come-from-behind, 25-22, 25-27, 22-25, 25-23, 15-12, escape over Farm Fresh for back-to-back wins in the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) Season 10 Siklab series on Tuesday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
Soyud scored six of her game-high 30 points in the deciding frame, capped by a game-clinching corner pocket missile from the back row for the Chargers’ second win in four outings.
“We just wanted to bounce back from our past losses, and I know that the team has yet to show its full potential,” said Soyud, who scored 27 attack points.
“What clicked today is the willingness of each one of us to win and get back up from those defeats,” she added.
Soyud actually had a fifth-set shootout against her opposite counterpart Trisha Tubu, who had five markers in the final frame, but she and Akari had the last laugh and pulled the Foxies to a tie with them and idle Capital1.
Ivy Lacsina finished with 21 points on 18 kills, two aces and a kill block while adding 17 excellent receptions for the Chargers. Fifi Sharma posted 11 points while setter Mars Alba tallied 22 excellent sets and scored eight points, including three kill blocks.
It was a back-and-forth tug-of-war in the fifth set with Tubu tying the count at 11 on a timely kill. But the reigning league Most Valuable Player committed a costly service error that the Chargers exploited to create a significant separation.
Alba scored off a setting miscue by Farm Fresh, before Sharma shut the door on Royse Tubino on the next play to put Akari at match point, 14-11.
Soyud’s service went long, but she took the point back and sealed the two-hour, 45-minute victory from the pipe.
“The character has always been there. I guess, we just needed to show it on court. We showed great connection and that translated into points,” Chargers assistant coach Eddieson Orcullo said.
Akari played with a sense of urgency in the fourth frame after going down, 1-2, in the match.
The Chargers used a 5-0 blitz to break free from a 17-17 deadlock. The Foxies countered with a 4-1 rally to close the gap, 23-21, after Tubino’s offspeed kill.
Soyud put Akari at set point advantage but Tubo saved a point, followed by a Chargers middle blocker Ced Domingo attack error.
A kill by Soyud forced a fifth set.
Tubu finished with 25 points, all from spikes, while Tubino chipped in 13 kills in a 14-point output for Farm Fresh. Mylene Paat-Rezanova got 12 points and Ces Molina had nine points and 10 digs in a losing effort.