Petro Gazz bows to Taipower in AVC Champions League debut

Petro Gazz fell flat in its debut game at the AVC Champions League, absorbing a 15-25, 16-25, 25-19, 20-25 loss to Chinese Taipei’s Taipower on Monday at the Philsports Arena.

The Angels, who were just coming off a historic PVL All-Filipino Conference title run a week ago, slipped to 0-1 in Pool B and are now in a must-win situation against Hip Hing of Hong Kong tomorrow.

With the win, Taipower is through to the quarterfinals with a 2-0 win-loss record.

The Angels, however, stressed that championship hangover wasn't a factor in the loss and said they are ready to open a new chapter in their club starting with the AVC Champions League.

"The championship wasn't too long ago, I feel like now we've celebrated it, it's in the past. We've moved on so we've flipped the page. That was the last chapter and we're now focusing on these games," said Brooke Van Sickle, the reigning All-Filipino Conference MVP.

"But I would say today wasn't our best performance. We definitely came out a little flat but again, I've always preached about these losses and lessons learned."

After dropping the first two sets, the Angels rediscovered their form in the third set with Van Sickle and import Gia Day fueling the rally as the latter denied Lin Cai-Zhen for an 18-15 lead. 

Joy Dacoron then took advantage of an overpass before Van Sickle served up an ace to extend the game into a fourth set, 25-19. 

Petro Gazz continued to build on that momentum, tying the fourth set at 8-all before the visitors responded with a huge 10-3 rampage that made it a sizable 18-11 cushion for the Taiwanese. 

MJ Phillips then came up with back-to-back points to cut the deficit to four at 18-22, but service errors cost the Philippine club the game as Rem Palma committed a service infraction to give Taipower the four-set victory. 

The 26-year-old Day led Petro Gazz in the gallant stand with 18 points anchored on 16 attacks, one block, and one ace alongside eight digs and nine receptions while Van Sickle posted 13 markers together with eight digs and three receptions. 

Hsu Wan-Yun paced Taipower with 18 points on 16 attacks and two aces  while also grabbing 14 digs and nine receptions for an all-around outing. 

—JKC, GMA Integrated News