Final or bust in PSL semis

Games today

4 p.m. – Philips Gold vs Foton

6 p.m. – Petron vs Cignal

MANILA, Philippines - Philips Gold takes on Foton while Petron clashes with Cignal in a pair of knockout matches tipped to go down-to-the-wire in the semifinals of the Philippine Superliga (PSL) Grand Prix women’s volleyball tournament today at The Arena in San Juan.

The Lady Slammers, who topped the double round elims at 8-2, hope to impose their will and power early against a Foton side that dealt one of their only two setbacks, guaranteeing a slam-bang encounter at 4 p.m.

“I think this is going to be a very exciting encounter,” said Philips Gold coach Francis Vicente. “There’s no clear favorite. We can’t say that we’re the underdogs because we topped the elims. At the same time, we can’t say that they are the underdogs because they beat us in the second round.”

Billed as team to beat with a solid roster built around American imports Bojana Todorovic and Alexis Olgard and local ace Myla Pablo, the Lady Slammers lived up to the hype and dominated the elims but the Tornadoes remain unfazed, hopeful of scoring a repeat of their 25-14, 25-22, 18-25, 25-18 victory in the second round last Nov. 5.

Vicente’s main concern is how to neutralize Foton’s three six-footers in imports Katie Messing, Lindsay Stalzer and local Jaja Santiago.