Crossovers get big play-in head start with whitewash of Chameleons
With its back pinned against the wall, Chery Tiggo isn’t planning on letting the last bus heading to the PVL All-Filipino Conference quarterfinals drive away without being on board.
And after planting a foot inside the door, the Crossovers kept reminding themselves that they cannot slip up anymore.
“We can’t go further down from hereon,” an emphatic Cess Robles told reporters in Filipino. “This is it (the lowest point we can be). We just need to do our jobs to reach our goal.”
Chery Tiggo did its job on Thursday, clobbering a hapless Nxled, 25-22, 26-24, 25-12, at PhilSports Arena behind the 15 points each of Robles and Ara Galang and with the help of Shaya Adorador’s 14 points.
But this was the first part of the plan for the Crossovers.
They know that this is their last chance to book a ticket to the next round after it was put in a ditch by four straight losses, including two dealt by quarterfinalist Choco Mucho.
The second part of the plan is just as important as the first—and maybe even harder.
“Our mindset is to keep our killer instinct still,” Adorador said as the Crossovers prepare to battle the last team standing on their way in Farm Fresh. “We hope to be able to bring it to our game [versus the Foxies].”
“When we take the lead, we need to hammer down on it because the next games are no joke. We need to be all out,” she added.
Creamline waiting
The skid-snapping victory couldn’t have come at a better time for Chery Tiggo, which now only has to win a game to clinch a ticket to the quarterfinals. It now has a head start after the 1-0 start in the Pool B of the play-in tournament.
If all goes well, Chery Tiggo’s next opponent will not be a piece of cake either, with defending champion Creamline comfortably awaiting in the quarterfinals.
Nxled will be on the edge of its seat and betting on the Foxies for the upset to stay alive and muddle things up.
But Chery Tiggo is intent on repeating what it did against the Chameleons when it battles Farm Fresh and not go back to how they performed in the tough stretch that put it in this tough position in the first place.
“We weren’t able to finish well because we don’t have a finisher in the latter part,” Adorador said, hoping that her crew turns things around for the better. “That has been the problem for us, which we hope to finally solve.”
“We have talked about losing our confidence whenever we lose. We’re working on it every day in training,” Robles added. “We are all persevering to bring our confidence back because we know that that’s not who we are.”
