MANILA – F2 Logistics Cargo Movers drew first blood in the 2019 Philippine Superliga Grand Prix semifinals after a 25-14, 17-25, 25-16, 25-22 Game 1 victory over PLDT Home Fibr Power Hitters on Tuesday night at San Juan Arena.
Reinforcement Lindsay Stalzer dug deep into her well of experience as she came through with clutch conversions to put the Cargo Movers on the brink of another finals appearance.
Stalzer finished with 29 points, including three straight attacks that broke the 22-all deadlock in the fourth set, while fellow import Maria Jose Perez chipped in 19 points, including 15 digs and nine excellent receptions.
Ilongga Abigal Marano and Victorinara Galang added 11 and nine markers, respectively, for the Cargo Movers, which is looking to avenge their bitter defeat to Petron Blaze Spikers in the thrilling final showdown last year.
Cargo Movers head coach Ramil de Jesus said that their sluggish second set was due to the inconsistent plays of setter Alex Cabanos, who took over the spot of Kim Fajardo, who was ruled out of the conference due to finger injury.
“I don’t have problems with my spiker. Our problem was the consistency of our setter. There were times that her sets are okay, but most of the time, her sets don’t reach the spikers,” De Jesus said.
Grace Lazard and Kendra Dahlke delivered 21 and 19 points, respectively, while Jasmine Nabor made 25 excellent sets for the Power Hitters, which is hoping to bounce back in Game 2 tonight.
Defending champion Blaze Spikers, for their part, also moved closer to another finals stint after 20-25, 25-14, 25-13, 25-18 domination over Cignal HD Spikers in their semifinals series opener.
Stephanie Niemer uncorked 19 attacks, three aces and a block for 23 points for the Blaze Spikers, which have stretch their unbeaten run this conference to 16 games./PN
