AKARI recovered from a sluggish start to defeat Cignal, 15-25, 25-17, 25-19, 25-22, and become the Pool B winners in the Premier Volleyball League Reinforced Conference at the Philsports Arena yesterday.

The HD Spikers dominated the first set when the Chargers stepped up their game by securing the next three to improve to 5-0, the club’s finest start since joining the league in 2022.

Cignal finished second place in its bracket with a 4-1 record.

Capital1 capped a scintillating Pool B campaign by finishing as the third-ranked team, brushing off a slow start to hack out a 18-25, 25-20, 25-19, 25-18 victory over ZUS Coffee.

The top three teams from Pool B will compete against the bottom three from Pool A in the next phase of the two-part preliminaries which begins on Saturday.

Akari’s perfect run in the pool was highlighted by a couple of reverse sweeps of fancied Choco Mucho and PetroGazz.

“Actually, it was a slow start. Every time, we would lose the first set, then we would rise. That’s what we need to work on differently because if we keep on doing that, we just make it high intensity when we can win at 3-0,” said Chargers coach Taka Minowa. “It’s just extra minutes for us.”

Akari’s American import Oly Okaro had 22-of-47 kills to finish with 24 points, Ivy Lacsina added 14 points while Ced Domingo had a match-best four blocks for a 10-point outing.

Kamille Cal orchestrated the Chargers’ play well with 14 excellent sets and matched Grethcel Soltones’ eight points, including three blocks.

Despite being a young team, the Solar Spikers were able to improve from All-Filipino tournament’s one-win output behind Russian Marina Tushova and setter Iris Tolenada, who was the club’s key conference break signig.

“Masaya ako at naglalaro sila ng maganda at nagre-respond sila,” said Capital1 coach Roger Gorayeb. “In the matter of six months, nag-regroup ang team na ito We will not let this opportunity pass.”

Coming off a record-setting 45-point performance, Tushova was still in the zone for the Solar Spikers with 32 points that went along with 10 digs and nine receptions.

“Being resilient and competing on the court,” said Tolenada, who tossed in 21 excellent sets and scored five kills.

The Thunderbelles, led by Asaka Tamaru’s 22 kills, remained winless in five matches.