When the match was on the line, Savi Davison made sure there was no doubt about who was taking over.
The PLDT High Speed Hitters survived a gruelling five-set battle against the Farm Fresh Foxies—22-25, 25-21, 27-25, 26-28, 15-11—to move within one win of the bronze medal in the 2026 PVL All-Filipino Conference on Tuesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. Two hours and 17 minutes of high-intensity volleyball, and in the end, it came down to one player at the net in the fifth set.
That player was Savi Davison.
Savi Davison Takes Over
Trailing 5-8 in the deciding set with Farm Fresh firing behind Trisha Tubu and Mylene Paat, PLDT regrouped. Kim Dy’s booming hit to level the score at 10 was the spark—and then Davison took the match by the scruff of the neck.
She scored four of PLDT’s final five points in the fifth, capped by back-to-back blocks on Tubu—two defining rejections that underscored her dominance in the clutch—and a crosscourt kill that put the game away. Dy followed with a powerful finish for match point, and after a brief Farm Fresh reprieve, Davison sealed it with a signature blast.
Final tally for Savi Davison: 33 points. It was, put simply, performance that overshadowed even Tubu’s own 30-point explosion on the other side of the net.
Set 3 Was the Turning Point
The match turned decisively in the third set—and it almost did not go PLDT’s way.
Trailing 17-20, the High Speed Hitters called timeout, returned composed, and sparked a comeback that featured one of the more pivotal moments of the match. PLDT’s coaching staff challenged a play on Tubu for net contact, video replay confirmed the infraction, and the momentum shifted. Dy levelled the score. Davison blocked Tubu to save a set point. Mika Reyes closed it out with a quick attack and a smart dump off a Farm Fresh overpass.
The set went to PLDT 27-25, giving them a 2-1 lead—and the psychological edge they never truly relinquished.
The Supporting Cast
While Davison owned the spotlight, Kim Fajardo was the architect behind it all, distributing 36 excellent sets to earn Best Player of the Game honours.
“Alam naman namin na hindi magiging madali ang laban, so talagang tiwala lang sa sarili at sa mga kasama,” Fajardo said, acknowledging their familiarity with Farm Fresh after multiple meetings this conference while crediting the collective trust that carried them through.
Dy backed Davison with 18 points, while Reyes, Alleiah Malaluan, and Majoy Baron added 13, 11, and 10 respectively. PLDT also won the blocking battle 13-8.
Farm Fresh received 15 points from Ces Molina and 9 each from Royse Tubino and Paat. Despite Tubu’s brilliance in the scoring column, she was repeatedly denied when it mattered—most painfully in the closing stretch of the fifth.
PLDT coach Rald Ricafort acknowledged the difficulty of the win without minimising what the Foxies brought to the court.
“It’s really been very tough—from the previous games up to this one,” he said. “Credit still goes to Farm Fresh, to coach Koji, and to the Foxies. They really wanted it. On our part, we’re happy that we were able to fight it out despite how difficult it was.”
What’s Next
PLDT heads into Game 2 on Thursday with momentum, a 1–0 series lead, and the confidence of knowing they can win ugly when they have to. Farm Fresh showed enough fight—battling back from 16-21 in the fourth to force a fifth, and controlling the decider early—to make Thursday’s match anything but a formality.
But Savi Davison is playing like someone who has decided how this series ends.
