Lance Agcaoili
GENERIKA-Ayala salvaged fifth place with a 25-10, 24-26, 25-10, 25-18 victory over Sta. Lucia in the classification round of the Philippine Superliga (PSL) Invitational Conference on Saturday at the Muntinlupa Sports Center.
Coming off a straight-sets loss to Smart-Army in the knockout quarterfinals on Thursday, the Lifesavers found a way to ease the pain, ending their Invitational campaign on a high note.
Patty Orendain provided the clutch hits in the fourth set and finished with 23 points off 19 kills. Skipper Angeli Araneta chipped in 14 hits, while Fiola Ceballos had an all-around performance tallying 13 points with 20 digs and nine excellent receptions.
Libero Kat Arado had 19 digs and nine receptions, while setter April Hingpit made 43 excellent sets on top of seven markers.
“Actually, alam naman nila na mabigat pagkatalo namin sa quarterfinals sabi ko sa kanila hindi na kayo bata kailangan matanggap niyo yan so move on na,” Generika-Ayala coach Sherwin Meneses said.
“Sabi ko kapag pangit nilaro natin ngayon, hindi tayo makakabawi niyan kailangan maganda laruin natin para ‘yung ranking natin pagandahin natin ng pagandahin. ‘Yun ‘yung target namin ‘yung ranking paganda ng paganda,” Meneses added.
After a fiery 15-point first set win, Generika-Ayala fell short of a comeback from a 14-18 deficit before taking control again in the third.
Generika-Ayala had a promising season finishing with a 3-1 win-loss record in Pool A, tying Petron and F2 Logistics, only to drop to third place due to quotient system before losing to Smart-Army in the quarterfinals.
MJ Phillips missed the match due to a minor shoulder tear as the Lady Realtors settled for sixth place. Sta. Lucia finished third in Pool B with a 2-2 slate before losing to F2 Logistics in the knockout quarterfinals.