Eya Laure (left, photo above) chased every ball down the stretch and stood out for Chery Tiggo, finishing with 26 points, including the winning ace. —AUGUST DELA CRUZ
Eya Laure sees battling against experienced teams as good experience as Chery Tiggo nears the end of the Premier Volleyball League’s All-Filipino conference elimination round and the battle for playoff spots heats up.
Veteran teams are what the Crossovers have left on their schedule, and they just gave themselves some much needed breathing room after eliminating another formidable team in Cignal on Tuesday, 17-25, 25-19, 21-25, 25-22, 16 – 14, at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City, where Laure led a dogged comeback.
“We are still a young team, learning,” said Laure after an excellent 26-point night. “Right now, we’re just soaking up the good things we can get. Let’s bring that to our next games and leave the bad things aside.”
The Crossovers won the final two sets, claiming their seventh victory in eight matches after erasing match point at 14-13 with Laure at the forefront. His second ace ended the two-hour, 13-minute marathon.
It was the fifth consecutive win for Chery Tiggo, who were missing center blocker Imee Hernandez, who has a feared anterior cruciate ligament tear and would likely be out when the Crossovers close out against F2 Logistics on November 25th, the mighty Creamline on November 28th. November and Choco Mucho on December 2 in Iloilo.
It’s a tough stretch that certainly won’t make the Crossovers’ journey to the semi-finals any easier.
But with the current success they are experiencing – and the way they are playing – it seems achievable.
“What we are conveying (to players), as in previous games, is the never-say-die attitude. I told them until no one gets to 25 (points), it’s not over,” said KungFu Reyes, who is calling the shots in place of head coach Aaron Velez. Cignal’s five-game winning streak was also snapped when the HD Spikers fell to 6-3.
Chery Tiggo also took 18 points from Princess Robles, with Mylene Paat and Cza Carandang scoring 11 points each, while Jas Nabor had 21 excellent sets.
Meanwhile, Petro Gazz broke a long losing streak with a 25-22, 19-25, 25-16, 26-24 victory over a Farm Fresh team who were fighting hard to remain mathematically in the hunt to progress past the qualifying stage .
The Angels, however, will be under a lot of pressure in the last two games if they want to maintain their chance at a spot in the semifinals.
“The pressure will always be there, so we just have to be aware of that. We can’t say there’s no pressure,” said coach Timmy Sto. said Tomás.
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“We have to recognize this and get around this pressure. It’s the same thing every day, we’ll keep working hard.”Petro Gazz had a 62-49 attacking advantage against the Foxies, who fell to a 1-8 card. INQ
