Petron Blaze loses to Vietnam, ends AVC campaign in eighth place

MANILA, Philippines – Petron Blaze finished its campaign in the 2015 AVC Asian Women’s Club Volleyball Championship on a sour note as they fell to Lienvietpost Bank of Vietnam in 4 sets, 24-26, 25-27, 26-24, 20-25, in the battle for seventh place match on Sunday, September 20, at the Ha Nam Competition Hall in Vietnam.

Leading Petron in front of 3,400 spectators was Rachel Daquis, who finished with 16 points – 13 on kills. Frances Molina also played well with 13 points, while Aby Marano and Dindin Santiago-Manabat recorded a combined 23 points.

Bui Thi Thoan led the winning side with 22 points, while Pham Thi Yen had 14. Overall, Vietnam had 4 scorers in double-figures.

Petron, who won only one game in the entire tournament, actually out-spiked their opponents throughout the 1 hour and 50 minutes contest, 53-50, but gave up 17 points to blocks and 31 to errors. 

Petron, which was slotted in Pool B, went 1-3 in the preliminaries as they suffered 0-3 defeats to the April 25 Sports Club from North Korea, Hisamitsu Springs from Japan, and Zhejiang from China; and defeated Azad University from Iran in 3 sets.

In the tourney quarterfinals, Petron’s championship hopes were quickly taken away as they were swept by Taiwan Power in 3 sets. Daquis and company then lost to Zhetysu Almaty from Kazakhstan and Lienvietpost in the classification games to finish in eighth overall.

Bangkok Glass beat Hisamitsu Springs in a 5-set finals to win the title, while Zhejiang took down Taiwan Power in 3 sets to finish in third place. – Rappler.com