MANILA, Philippines – The PetroGazz Angels made sure that their top billing in the 2019 Premier Volleyball League (PVL) Reinforced Conference wouldn’t go to waste that easy.

League No. 1 PetroGazz forced a do-or-die championship match after a four-set win over Creamline, 15-25, 25-22, 25-22, 25-12, in Game 2 on Saturday, July 13, at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.

PetroGazz – which snapped the Cool Smashers’ 12-game winning streak – looked unstoppable with the league’s best foreign guest player Wilma Salas leading the way.

“Sabi lang relax lang, down by one set, di pa tapos so nakuha namin groove namin, the way we play as a team, kaya nakuha namin ’yung 2nd set. The players really want to extend this series,” said PetroGazz head coach Arnold Laniog.

(I told them to relax even if we’re down by one set since the game is not yet done. So when we got our groove by playing as a team, we were able to get the 2nd set. The players really want to extend this series.)

Salas and fellow PetroGazz import Janisa Johnson topcored with 23 points each.

Newly crowned MVP Alyssa Valdez topscored for Creamline with 17 points. 

After Creamline dominated the Angels in the opening set, PetroGazz bounced back with a better attacking form to get past the defending champions’ defense in the 2nd set.

PetroGazz continued to flash its fine game in the 3rd set, but Creamline fought back from the deficit to knot the score at 20-all.

Errors from the Cool Smashers down the stretch had them surrendering the lead to the Angels as the top seeds cruised to a 2-1 match advantage.

With the Angels waxing hot in the match, Creamline looked helpless as PetroGazz raced to a 10-point lead, 19-9, on the way to sealing the game and extending the best-of-three finals series. – Rappler.com