By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The Petro Gazz Angels completed its stellar Premier Volleyball League (PVL) Reinforced Conference run after being hailed as the tournament queens last December 6, 2022.
After a slow start in the regular season, the Angels found their rhythm in the last five games just when the playoff round was about to start and capped off its efforts with a 25-17, 22-25, 25-12, 25-22 second game win over the Cignal HD Spikers in the grand finals.
Just by their body language, the Angels let everybody know that they didn’t want any do-or-die Game 3 game against the HD Spikers.
Petro Gazz came out firing from all cylinders and bullied the HD Spikers’ middle blockers courtesy of a laser-focused Lindsey Vander Weide.
The Angels went to their rolling import early in the game and kept on feeding her which resulted in quick points.
On the other hand, despite his team falling behind by a wide margin in the first set, Cignal’s head coach Shaq delos Santos still relied on his new rotation and benched import Tai Bierria for the whole first frame.
That rotation that did them wonders still didn’t affect Petro Gazz’s momentum but helped them in the second set when they were able to equalize things at one set apiece.
After Cignal’s second-set rally, Vander Weide and the rest of the Angels were just in-sync and buried the HD Spikers with their balanced attack and team coordination.
Vander Weide was named as the Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) after dropping 19 big points and was also hailed as the tournament’s Best Import.
Djanel Cheng also played the game of her life and ran the Angels’ offense to perfection after dishing out 26 excellent sets.
It was Cheng’s solid ball distribution that sparked Petro Gazz’s terrific start in the first set and never looked back once they got things going in their favor.
Rem Palma, one of the team’s veterans and a former national team opposite hitter, led all locals in scoring and chipped in 18 big points.
Meanwhile, the Creamline Cool Smashers won the bronze medal match against the Chery Tiggo Pro Crossovers, 25-15, 25-19, 23-25, 25-21.
Former MVP Tots Carlos spearheaded the Cool Smashers’ attack and led her team with 19 points while Jema Galanza added 16 points.
