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Joey Villar - The Philippine Star
February 28, 2025 | 12:00am
Ysa Jimenez on the attack.
STAR / File
MANILA, Philippines — Galeries Tower came into the Premier Volleyball League All-Filipino Conference qualification round with a slim to nothing chance of slaying a league giant like Cignal.
But the Highrisers used it as a challenge in motivating themselves into pounding out a shock 25-17, 25-22, 19-25, 25-19 victory over the HD Spikers at the PhilSports Arena yesterday to gatecrash the quarterfinal round.
The young, hopeful franchise was far from the lethargic performance it dished out in the preliminaries where the most it could extract was a lone victory in 11 outings, which was good for 10th of 12 teams.
The Highrisers outdid themselves, stunning the Cignal team that had been a perennial contender with a pair of runner-up finishes and five third-place trophies.
And it was easily the biggest victory for Galeries Tower, lifting the team to the next round.
Ysa Jimenez and France Elize Ronquillo played the game of their lives and unleashed 23 and 20 points, respectively, to power their team straight to the best-of-three quarters unfurling Thursday.
Jimenez, formerly of PLDT, was later named player of the game but said the match honors should go to the whole team.
“Of course, it wasn’t just me. Can all of us be players of the game instead? Is it possible?” Jimenez wondered.
Jimenez said the win was the product of all the hardships they faced and the sacrifices they made.
“It was all worth it,” she said.
It was a painful defeat for Cignal, which came in as the third seed after an 8-3 showing in the prelims.
But if there’s any consolation, it’s not the end of the world for the HD Spikers as they could still shoot for one of the last two quarters tickets if they survive the play-in phase.
There, they will join the five other qualification losers in a two-bracket, single-round-robin phase where the top two teams per group will catch the last trip to the quarters.
