CIGNAL bounced back from a previous loss to eliminate New San Jose Builders, 25-20, 25-19, 25-18, in the 2016 PLDT Home Ultera Philippine Super Liga Invitational at The Arena in San Juan on Thursday.
College of St. Benilde standouts Jeanette Panaga and Jannine Navarro led the way for the HD Spikers with 16 and 11 points, respectively. Bacolod recruit Fritz Gallenero added nine markers while skipper Micmic Laborte chipped in seven for Cignal, which evened its card 1-1 after a tough 25-19, 22-25, 21-25, 21-25 loss to Petron on Tuesday.
But despite the win, Cignal coach Sammy Acaylar could not help but notice the disparity in confidence and skills his players show in practice and in games.
“The problem is, I explained to them yesterday, that it’s their confidence and heart, medyo masyadong mababa pa, maybe (dahil) sa game namin the other day,” said Acaylar. “But then today although we won the game parang hindi pa rin ako satisfied sa ginagalaw. Because ‘yung ginagalaw nila sa actual training namin malayo sa nilalaro namin ngayon. So medyo nangangapa pa ang bawat isa.”
“And skills wise nandyan naman eh ang lagi kong pinoproblema talaga ‘yung recovery nila kapag nagkamali sila,” he added. “Parang binibitbit talaga nila (ang mali nila) parang somebody sa loob ng court walang nagdadala.”
However, the veteran mentor, who also handles the University of Perpetual Help women’s volleyball team that makes up the New San Jose Builders, was impressed with the way the Victorias put up a fight against his PSL squad.
“Ang sabi ko sa kanila (HD Spikers) you have to respect your opponent kasi bilog ang bola, you’ll never know (kung kalian sila babawi),” he said.
Jamela Suyat finished with 11 points for New San Jose Builders, which bowed out of contention with a 0-5 record.