By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The PLDT High Speed Hitters opened their 2022 Premier Volleyball League (PVL) Reinforced Conference campaign with a good start after surviving the UAI-Army team in five grueling sets, 17-25, 25-20, 24-26, 25-11, 15-11.
PLDT’s superstar import Elena Savkina-Samoilenko quickly impressed in her first game with the High Speed Hitters and dropped 35 points built from 32 successful attacks.
Aside from her scoring prowess, Samoilenko also stuffed the stat sheets and added 12 excellent digs, two blocks, and one service ace.
Samoilenko got hot in the most crucial stretch of the final two sets and was just unstoppable every time veteran setter Rhea Dimaculangan fed her the ball during their offensive executions.
Dimaculangan tallied 21 excellent sets and most of it was completed by Samoilenko’s successive attacks that turned into points.
After trailing 1-2 after the first three sets, the High Speed Hitters suddenly flipped the switch and turned to Samoilenko when most of the locals failed to sustain their momentum.
Samoilenko then answered the call and bullied Army’s middle blockers during the fourth and the fifth sets.
It was also Samoilenko who single-handedly lifted PLDT in the final set when the game was deadlocked at 9-all.
During the thrilling final 10 minutes of the match with emotions running high, Samoilenko unleashed a personal 3-0 scoring that spearheaded PLDT’s 5-1 run to take a 14-10 lead for the match point.
Army scored one more point to stay alive after Dimaculangan’s crucial error but Samoilenko saved the day for PLDT after hammering home the game-sealing point.
“Pinaghandaan naman namin syempre. Hindi ganun kadali sa first game lalo na sa mga imports, sabi ko sa kanya just play your game and laging hihingin yung bola lalo na kapag kinakailangan during crucial match,” said PLDT head coach George Pascua.
