Having the necessary tools but considered an underachiever so far, Akari did his best to finish his Premier Volleyball League (PVL) All-Filipino Conference preliminary round schedule on a positive note, even though he there are virtually no guarantees. that a place in the semi-finals is the end of all his hard work.
The Chargers won a second straight game after shutting out Capital1 on Thursday, 25-17, 25-14, 25-20, but the door for them to advance to the playoff round was all but closed, with their chances resting on the powerful defending champion Creamline. losing three improbable games in a row by closing out its own playoff round schedule.
“We need help from other teams,” Akari coach Raffy Mosuela said in Filipino, as the Cool Smashers can eliminate the Chargers even with just one win in their last three games, which will be against Nxled , Choco Mucho and PLDT.
“We’ll have to ask for wins (on Creamline) from other teams,” Mosuela said after his crew improved to a 4-5 map with assignments against Chery Tiggo and the departure of lightweight group Strong.
As it stands, the Flying Titans and High Speed Hitters share the lead at 7-1, with the Cool Smashers and Petro Gazz Angels tied for third at 6-2. Chery Tiggo and Cignal, who are 5-2, are still playing at press time, with the loser moving closer to elimination as only the top four teams will advance.
This is why Mosuela remains realistic about his chances and would just like a big outing as a consolation prize.
“Our goal is to beat Chery (Tiggo for us) to at least finish with a winning record,” he said as his charges continue to learn how to play with each other and hopefully, to give the powers a better fight at the next conference. “The team is starting to have good chemistry (in just) a short time in this conference where we had two new additions besides me,” Mosuela said. “It takes about six months to fully get the team chemistry (that we need), so as we get closer to the end of conference, it starts to add up.”
Veteran Dindin Santiago-Manabat then led the Chargers’ efforts, scoring with 25 points against the Solar Spikers. Her total included 20 points on offense as she simply dominated Capital1’s defense. She also had three blocks and two aces.
“The good thing about our team is that everyone stays patient, so even if we lose or have challenges, we work really hard and everyone continues to show up and work hard,” Fifi said Sharma, one of the best blockers in the league here.
“I hope these remaining games will show what we have been working on over the last few months,” she added.