Galeries Tower stuns Cignal; Creamline routs Nxled to advance to PVL quarters

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The Galeries Tower Highrisers and the Creamline Cool Smashers punch their tickets to the quarterfinals of the 2024-2025 PVL All-Filipino Conference after scoring contrasting victories in the opening day of the qualifying round

MANILA, Philippines – The Galeries Tower Highrisers proved that anything can happen in the qualifying round of the 2024-2025 PVL All-Filipino Conference.

Pitted against the heavily favored, third-seeded Cignal HD Spikers, the 10th-ranked Highrisers punched their ticket to the quarterfinals after a 25-17, 25-22, 19-25, 25-19 upset at the PhilSports Arena on Thursday, February 27.

The Highrisers — who finished the preliminary round with a 1-10 record — not only clinched the first quarterfinal spot of the conference, but also their first-ever playoff berth since joining the league in 2023. 

“Floating in heaven. Very grateful. All of our tears, blood, and sweat were worth it because we’ve been through a lot before this game,” said Galeries Tower head coach Lerma Giron after the major upset. 

“Since the start of January we kept losing, losing, and losing. We came into realization that this isn’t acceptable. But it’s all a process, we also studied the movement of Cignal. So thank you, Lord, all glory to God,” she added in Filipino.

Ysa Jimenez was on a mission for the Highrisers as she dropped a game-high 23 points off 22 attacks and 1 block. 

France Ronquillo, likewise, came to play for Galeries Tower as she added 20 points built on 18 attacks, a block, and an ace, along with 13 excellent receptions. 

Jewel Encarnacion and Alyssa Eroa also delivered for the Highrisers as the former contributed 11 points and 13 excellent receptions, while the latter tallied 28 excellent digs.

With the score tied at 9-9 early in the fourth set, Galeries Tower mounted an all-important 6-0 run to create separation from Cignal, 15-9.

The HD Spikers managed to pull within four points multiple times late in the set, but that was the closest they could get as the six-point spread the Highrisers built early on proved too much to erase.

Vanie Gandler paced Cignal in the losing effort with 17 points, while Ishie Lalongisip and Jacqueline Acuna put up 13 each.

Aside from the loss, the HD Spikers suffered a huge blow as they saw their winger Jovelyn Fernandez get stretchered off the floor with a neck brace after colliding with Lalongisip early in the third set.  

No upset for top-ranked Creamline

Meanwhile, the league-leading Creamline Cool Smashers made sure there would be no upset in the second match as they swept the No. 12 Nxled Chameleons, 25-18, 25-17, 25-17, to join the Highrisers in the quarterfinals. 

Bea de Leon was the lone double-digit scorer for the Cool Smashers in the dominant win with 12 points, while Kyle Negrito won the Player of the Game award after dishing out 15 excellent sets, to go with her 4 points.

TAKE CHARGE. Creamline’s Bea de Leon reacts against Nxled during the PVL qualifying round.

On the other side, Chiara Permentilla recorded game-highs of 14 points and 18 receptions for Nxled in the setback. 

Despite the losses, both the HD Spikers and the Chameleons can still make it to the quarterfinals through the play-in tournament.

The six teams who come up short in the qualifying round will be divided into two groups in the play-in tournament, where they will battle it out in a single round-robin format.

The top squads from each group will then advance to the best-of-three quarterfinals. – Rappler.com