Imports Katherine Bell and Stephanie Niemer made a rousing debut as Petron made short work of PLDT Home Fibr, 25-19, 25-9, 25-10, in the Philippine Superliga Grand Prix yesterday at The Arena in San Juan City.
Billed as two of the best imports the country ever saw, Bell and Niemer were almost unstoppable as they towed Petron to an easy win in this prestigious women’s club tourney that has ESPN5 and 5Plus as broadcast partners.
Bell led the charge with 15 points and 10 digs while Niemer scattered nine spikes, three aces and a pair of blocks for 14 hits in their win that lasted for one hour and 26 minutes.
Mika Reyes also delivered with seven points while Aiza Maizo-Pontillas and Remy Palma added six points apiece for Petron, which is looking to defend its crown in this tourney that has Asics, Mikasa, Mueller, Senoh, Team Rebel Sports, Bizooku, UCPB Gen, Hotel Sogo and Data Project as sponsors.
Libero Denden Lazaro also had 10 digs in her Petron debut.
“We struggled in the first set maybe because it’s just our first game. The players, especially the imports, were too excited,” said Petron head coach Shaq Delos Santos. “I told them to relax, take a deep breath and focus. Good thing we were able to recover.”
Petron had a slow start as it was downed early, 5-11, in the first set before trimming it to one, 18-19, until the Blaze Spikers unleashed seven straight points to take the first set.
The defending champions were relentless in the succeeding sets with Bell and Niemer heating up mounting big leads 19-7 in the second set and 17-5 in the third frame never looking back to win their first game.
Import Grace Lazard was the lone bright spot for PLDT with 14 points while her fellow reinforcement, Kendra Dahlke, only had four markers as her team gave up 24 errors in her debut.
