Lady Realtors stun Blaze Spikers, bolster Superliga bid

MANILA, Philippines — Sta. Lucia Realty put on a solid performance and shocked erstwhile unbeaten Petron, 25-18, 25-21, 25-17, to boost its drive in the Chooks to Go-Philippine Superliga (PSL) Grand Prix at the Filoil Flying V Center in San Juan last night.

The Lady Realtors pounced on the sluggish Blaze Spikers from the start and sustained their charge all throughout to complete the surprising straight-set 77-minute rout of the powerhouse squad.

Sta. Lucia improved to 4-5 and stayed in the hunt for a twice-to-beat incentive in the quarterfinal round.

The Lady Realtors will take on the winless Smart Giga Hitters next week but must hope the Cocolife (5-3) Asset Managers would drop their two matches in the classification phase.

Ukrainian reinforcement Dana Anisova came away with 13 kills and an ace to finish with 14 points while MJ Philips and Marisa Field backed her up with 13 and 10 markers, respectively, for the Lady Realtors.

“This (victory) is a huge morale-boost for us,” said Sta. Lucia coach George Pascua, who also steered the Blaze Spikers to a sweep of the All-Filipino Conference crown in 2015.

“I told them that whoever has the desire will definitely get the victory,” added Pascua. “I noticed that we always lack mental toughness down the stretch. That’s why we had a training session to improve to toughen up and to believe that we can beat an elite team like Petron.” 

The Lady Realtors imposed their will early and took a 16-7 lead with Anisova and Philips combining with Jonah Sabete to put Sta. Lucia on the hill, 24-14.

Though Lindsay Stalzer tried to rally the fancied team with her own hits, Field connected from the middle to wrap up the set.

American imports Stalzer and Hillary Hurley tallied 19 and 15 markers, respectively, for the Blaze Spikers, who struggled all game long due to poor reception and turnovers.

They tallied 28 errors while the presence of Japanese libero Yuri Fukuda was hardly felt, enabling the Lady Realtors to inflict the Blaze Spikers their first setback after an imposing eight-game sweep.