FARM Fresh and its pool of ex-Cignal stars torched their former side in straight sets, 25-19, 25-20, 25-16, in the 2025 PVL Reinforced Conference on Thursday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
It was three-time best opposite hitter Trisha Tubu’s turn to do the heavy lifting on offense with 21 points on 59-percent attacking efficiency, as Eli Rousseaux, who dropped 38 in her winning debut, toned down yet still unleashed 17 markers and 11 digs.
This became the Foxies’ first win over the Super Spikers in six all-time PVL meetings, since the former’s league debut in the 2023 Invitational Conference.
They also improved to 2-0, marking their best start in their two-year franchise history.
Ces Molina (11 points) and Alohi Robins-Hardy capitalized on their revenge game of sorts against a heavily-depleted Cignal side that did not have their head coach and top winger onboard.
The Super Spikers missed the services of Vanie Gandler with an undisclosed arm injury and head coach Shaq delos Santos who is down with the flu. His longtime deputy Rico de Guzman took over in his place.
Without discrediting his Farm Fresh's brave stand, shot-caller Alessandro Lodi particularly took note of Gandler and delos Santos' absences that may have tipped the scales to in favor.
"We knew it would be for sure a difficult game also because Cignal did not perform well clearly last Monday against Choco Mucho, so we’re prepared for their reaction," Lodi said.
"Already not having Gandler on the court clearly is a big help for us. I would always want the best lineup and all the best players to be on the court. This being said, we can only focus on what we can control and our side of the net and I think we delivered a strong performance today."
Bad Cignal
Only Greek import Eva Chantava kept the Super Spikers' ship afloat with 13 points and seven receptions to pace a rough 0-2 start for the reigning bronze medalists. In Gandler's absence, Ishie Lalongisip held the fort for their local core with six points.
Not even a relatively tidy performance with just 13 errors conceded in the one-hour, 29-minute contest could hand Cignal a breakthrough win.
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