MALOLOS CITY – Foton made a short work of winless Marinerang Pilipina, 25-15, 29-27, 25-14, to end the preliminary round on a high note in the Philippine Superliga All-Filipino Conference Tuesday at the Malolos Sports and Convention Center here.
The Tornadoes finally arrested a three-game skid with sisters Jaja Santiago and Dindin Santiago-Manabat delivering 16 points apiece to hand the Lady Skippers their 14th straight defeat.
Manabat was named as best player of the game with 13 kills, two aces and a block, while Santiago nailed 14 kills and a pair of blocks.
“Our service-receive worked well. That has been our problem for the past games. We are good in attacking and blocking but service receive is still the key to win games,” said Manabat, who also had 11 excellent digs.
“Heading into the quarterfinals. Service-receive will still be our focus because when you have a good service receive, attacking, blocking and the rest follow.”
Wing spikers Mina Aganon and Elaine Kasilag also instrumental with nine and eight points, respectively, as well as setter Gyselle Sy, who had 20 excellent sets on top of five markers.
Eya Laure, who replaced injured Maika Ortiz, also made her PSL debut for Foton, but only played late in the second and third set finishing with two points as she was obviously still adjusting to the team’s system.
Foton finished the elimination round with an 8-6 win-loss record with idle Generika-Ayala, but the Tornadoes won the quotient with 25 points, two markers ahead of the Lifesavers.
Foton, however, was praying for a losing result for Cignal, which was still battling F2 Logistics as of press time, to secure the No. 3 spot and set a knockout quarterfinals showdown with No.6 PLDT on Thursday at The Arena in San Juan City.
