PETRO Gazz goes for the clincher against a Creamline side that’s not expected to merely roll over and die in Game 2 of the best-of-three Finals of the Premier Volleyball League All Filipino Conference Tuesday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Yet both coaches—Petro Gazz’s Oliver Almadro and Creamline’s Sherwin Meneses—agree that the very limited window to tinker with the game plan favors the side with a better mindset.
“Prepare the mindset, prepare the body and everything follows,” said Almadro, whose Angels shocked the Cool Smashers and their legions of fans, 25-22, 24-26, 25-23, 26-24, in Game 1 only two nights ago in the same Pasay City arena.
“Only one day rest and it will all be about mindset for the next match,” Meneses said.
Petro Gazz goes for the title in the match set at 6:30 p.m. A deciding Game 3 is set Thursday.
“It will be tough to adjust—the training schedule—that’s why the mindset will come into play,” Meneses said.
The multi-titled Meneses rued his wards’ erratic outing and stressed their need to focus on avoiding basic errors in service and net touch.
The Angels pounced on the Cool Smashers’ 22 miscues, including the match-clinching net violation that somewhat gave the thrilling duel—spiked by fierce exchanges of attacks, digs and everything else—an anti-climactic ending.
Meneses, however, downplayed that last error, a crucial point that Petro Gazz gained on a net touch challenge.
“Breaks of the game. But that’s not the reason why we lost, we had several lapses,” he said.
The two-time PVL champion coach, however, remained confident that the Cool Smashers will go all-out to send the series into a deciding game and stay in the hunt for back-to-back championships in the centerpiece tournament of the league organized by Sports Vision.
Expect Tots Carlos, Jema Galanza, Ced Domingo, Michele Gumabao and playmaker Jia de Guzman to crank up their offensive games and the rest to back them up with a gritty floor defense and coverage and keep the pressure on the reigning Reinforced Conference champions.
But the fired-up Angels are keen on finishing off their multi-titled rivals as they go for their first All-Filipino trophy after nailing two crowns in the import-laced tournaments, including in last December’s finals against the Cignal HD Spikers.
“Follow the game plan, show character, teamwork and right attitude,” said Almadro of their battle plan.
He is again expected to count on her gutsy crew made up of Grethcel Soltones, Jonah Sabete, Aiza Pontillas, Remy Palma and top middle MJ Phillips and Djanel Cheng, whose superb playmaking skills helped anchor the Angels’ surprise Game One victory.
“But the most important thing is we have to be prepared. Creamline is a matured, intact team,” added Almadro, who is one win away from claiming his first PVL championship.
“They’re strong team, they are the Goliaths of this tournament so we can we be the David?” he added.
F2 Logistics, meanwhile, also guns for a sweep of its own best-of-three series with PLDT at 4 p.m. as the Cargo Movers go for a follow-up to their 20-25, 25-22, 25-18, 25-17 victory in Game One.
Games are telecast live on One Sports, One Sports+, Cignal Play, and SMART Live Stream and on pvl.ph.