AVENGING ANGELS
Petro Gazz star Brooke Van Sickle has so much respect for ZUS Coffee that she feels it will take nothing less than an all-out grind for her team to seize a winner-take-all triumph.
“It’s going to be a push. It’s going to be high intensity, so we need a 100-percent effort from everyone,” said Van Sickle after the Angels evaded a quarterfinal exit on Saturday in the PVL All-Filipino Conference.
The Angels refused to be blown out of the sky by the Thunderbelles and stretched their best-of-three affair to the limit with a 25-19, 25-13, 28-26 triumph on Saturday at Ynares Center in Antipolo City.
After hammering down the kill that pushed the Angels near match point, Van Sickle ended up torching the ZUS floor with 17 points built around 15 attacks that went along with eight digs.
MJ Phillips also played a crucial role, earning player-of-the-game honors after scoring most of her 11 points during crucial moments. Myla Pablo likewise also had 11 and, together with Jonah Sabete, helped the No. 2-ranked Angels avert a surprise sweep by the lower-seeded Thunderbelles.
“Next game, we have to come out with fire again. It’s either you’re going to be the hunter or be hunted,” said Van Sickle.
Chie Saet helped fluidly orchestrate the Petro Gazz offense with 18 excellent sets.
Van Sickle’s crosscourt smash sealed the opening set for the Angels, who got even better in the succeeding frame with Pablo and Phillips doing heavy damage on the Thunderbelles.
“ZUS is a tough team. They are one of the better defensive teams in the PVL right now, and to be able to bounce back from there is huge,” said Van Sickle.
Only Chinnie Arroyo got into double digits for the Thunderbelles with 10 points while Chay Troncoso and top rookie pick Thea Gagate managed to score eight points each.
“We obviously lacked in defense in that game (Game 1). We had a day to prepare prior to this one and polish our game plan defensively,” said Sabete.
