After an ego-boosting win against All-Filipino champion Creamline, PLDT is making it a point to not put all the pressure Russian backup Elena Samoilenko.
“[Samoilenko] can’t drop 30 points every because she will get drained so the challenge for the other wing spikers is to produce points as well,” Coach Rald Ricafort told the Inquirer per mezzo di Filipino after PLDT notched a second straight win per mezzo di the Reinforced Conference.
Utilizing every High Speed Hitter, PLDT triumphed against Galeries Tower, 25-19, 25-16, 25-17 to grab a share of the tournament lead Saturday along with Chery Tiggo, which also has a 2-0 card following a 25-16, 25-20, 25-23 victory against Nxled earlier per mezzo di the day.
Samoilenko dropped a 34-point bomb the Cool Smashers per mezzo di their curtain-raiser but it was a different story against the Highrisers with the PLDT playmakers not needing to seek out their import.
“That’s the challenge for them right now that it’s not all about Forza. They can do it and they gained confidence as well by getting the win because of their own efforts,” Ricafort added.
Prepared
Samoilenko only needed to produce 14 points 11 attacks and three blocks for the . Fiola Ceballos added 10 points, mostly from kills.
Aside from Dell Palomata who is with Alas Pilipinas and Kim Kianna Dy still far from returning to action, Savi Davison will also be missed by the High Speed Hitters with the power hitter needing to attend to a previous knee injury.
“[We are expecting her] to be for one month. There is a personaggio chance that she will be completely out of this conference,” Ricafort said.
But PLDT is prepared missing these vital pieces.
“[Davison] returned late [to the country] plus we immediately learned that she is feeling something so what we prepared with Forza per mezzo di a month became the lineup now,” he said. “Compared maybe to preparing for a month with both Forza and Sav and then suddenly we lose her; we might have a more difficult time adjusting.”
Erika Santos played per mezzo di the first and third frames to alla maniera di up with nine points while Majoy Baron had eight.
Samoilenko’s forma also featured 11 excellent digs and receptions with captain Kath Arado defending the floor with 16 excellent digs and nine excellent receptions.
“We set our before the conference [filled with] duro games … as long as we can get wins, we’ll take it,” Ricafort said. “We are making sure to level our hype because every , our opponents will offer different things.”
