The Crossovers are making their move up the standings.
The Chery Tiggo Crossovers moved to solo second in the standings on Saturday night after a hard-earned 14-25, 25-20, 28-26, 25-19 victory over the PLDT High Speed Hitters at the PhilSports Arena.
And, as has been the Chery Tiggo way, a complete team effort did the trick, with five players double-digit markers led by 18 and 13 points from the Laure sisters, Eya and EJ. Pauline Gaston chipped in 12, veteran Mylene Paat added 11, and Czarina Carandang contributed 10.
It was a good win all around for the Crossovers—except for that slow start.
Then again, it is nothing new. The Crossovers have lately been plagued by slow starts but have generally been able to power past them, waking up just in time to avert disaster.
“Slow starts talaga kami,” rued Jasmine Nabor in the postmatch presser. “Kailangan aggressive kami sa umpisa palang kasi mahilig kami dun sa mabagal tapos biglang hahabulin namin.”
It worked against PLDT. But that won’t be the case for every slow start.
“Hindi pwedeng laging ganun ‘yung mangyayari every game kasi what if ‘yung kalaban, mas pinu-push pa nila hanggang sa lumalamang ‘yung score nila,” Nabor added. “At least napaganda namin ‘yung second, third, and fourth.”
But, again, things won’t always turn out right when Chery Tiggo starts off slow—as was the case in the team’s lone loss at the hands of the Akari Chargers. In that match, the Crossovers dropped the first set, 25-20, got one back in the second, 25-18, but lost the last two, 25-22, 25-20.
So, yes, Nabor knows fully well that slow starts can come back to bite the Crossovers.
And that is why she is hoping Chery Tiggo can avoid such starts moving forward, especially with showdowns versus the Cignal HD Spikers (November 21), F2 Logistics Cargo Movers (November 25), and Creamline Cool Smashers (November 28) coming up next.