Cignal ends Zus Coffee’s perfect run

MANILA, Philippines — Cignal drew strength from Erika Santos in the first two sets and then from Vannie Gandler in the third as it stopped the erstwhile unbeaten ZUS Coffee, 25-12, 26-24, 25-23, and bolstered its quarterfinal bid in the PVL Reinforced Conference at the Smart Araneta Coliseum yesterday.

Santos, the PVL on Tour MVP, sizzled with 19 points, including 13 on kills and three on blocks, while Gandler came off the bench and chipped in seven, mostly in the third set as the Super Spikers foiled the Thunderbelles’ threat at forcing another set.

The win, the Manny V. Pangilinan-owned franchise’s fourth in seven outings, pushed Cignal one win closer to the quarters, but it would have to beat powerhouse Creamline Tuesday at the Ynares Center Montalban.

And Cignal coach Shaq delos Santos knows they would need to have all hands on deck – including import KT Trebichavska – to pull the rug from under the Cool Smashers.

“She was a big help in this game even though she is still adjusting,” said Delos Santos on the Slovakian spiker, who chipped in 13 hits. “Skills wise (from one to 10), she’s eight or nine in terms of performance but is only six going seven in terms of what we expect from her.

“Hopefully she’ll play 10 or even 11 in our next game, which is a must-win,” he added.

For ZUS, Anna DeBeer fired 26 points, but couldn’t do it alone as none of her teammates could score six points or more.

“We put an effort to stop her (DeBeer) but she still scored 26. Good thing we stopped the locals, that’s a plus factor,” said Delos Santos.

The Thunderbelles dropped to 6-1.

In the second game, Akari slammed sibling rival Nxled, 25-13, 25-17, 25-22, to likewise close in on a spot in the quarters.

Annie Mitchem dropped a match-best 22 points in powering the Chargers to their fourth win against three defeats.

One more triumph – versus Choco Mucho Tuesday in Montalban – would catapult Akari to the last-eight.

The Chameleons slipped to 0-7.