JOVELYN Gonzaga took over late in the fifth set as Cignal survived Sta. Lucia, 19-25, 25-18, 25-13, 23-25, 15-12, on Thursday in the Philippine Super Liga All-Filipino Conference at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.
Gonzaga had 22 points including two attacks in the HD Spikers' last four points of the fifth set to come away with the narrow victory in their conference opener.
Rachel Anne Daquis had 14 points for Cignal.
Fil-American Mar-Jana Phillips had 16 points in her PSL debut as the rest of the Lady Realtors made the HD Spikers earn the win.
"Sabi ko nga sa mga players ko, malalaki 'yung kalaban, hindi natin kaya i-block so kailangan sa service, ma-dominate natin," said Cignal coach George Pascua.
Sta. Lucia was trailing, 15-19, in the fourth set when the Lady Realtors scored six consecutive points, the final two on Cignal errors, to grab the lead before Phillips sent the game to set point with an attack ad another Cignal error forced a fifth set.
The Lady Realtors were already up in the fifth set, 11-10, before Gonzaga and Daquis took over. Gonzaga's emphatic kill was followed by a block on Phillips to end the match.
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