2 weeks ago
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Joey Villar - Philstar.com
February 27, 2025 | 7:28pm
It was undisputedly the biggest victory in the young franchise’s life in the pros and should surpass its past performances of 11th, 10th and 11th places in its first three conferences.
PVL Media Bureau
Games Saturday
(PhilSports Arena)
4 p.m. - Petro Gazz vs Capital1
6:30 p.m. - Choco Mucho vs Chery Tiggo
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 in San Juan Thursday to gatecrash into 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 here.
Instead, it showed up with a team that looked like it could contend as it stunningly dominated a Cignal franchise that has been a perennial contender following a pair of runner-up finishes and five third-place trophies.
It was undisputedly the biggest victory in the young franchise’s life in the pros and should surpass its past performances of 11th, 10th and 11th places in its first three conferences.
Ysa Jimenez and France Elize Ronaquillo 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 award 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,” said Jimenez.
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 prelims.
But if there’s any consolation, it's still 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 format phase where the top two teams per group will catch the last quarters bus.
And Cignal hopes it gets it.
