Jen Nierva knew that with Chery Tiggo battling a formidable PLDT crew that has the prolific Savi Davison, the Crossovers would need to play a lot of defense to win.

A defense that she was very willing to lead.

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Armed with a six-page scouting report on the PLDT offense she herself wrote, Nierva was all over the floor on Tuesday and led a blunting of the High Speed Hitters as Chery Tiggo dealt Davison and the previously unscathed High Speed Hitters a 25-12, 25-23, 20-25, 25-22 beating at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

“I started my day watching PLDT [tapes] and I have six pages of how I will be playing them today,” Nierva said. “That’s something new that I did today that really worked and I saw that it’s really effective when you study your opponent, when you really read them.

Glittering numbers

“It was easier to move inside the court when you know how your foe will be moving,” Nierva added after defending the Crossovers’ floor with 17 excellent digs and 16 excellent receptions.

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The Crossovers are also filled with effective hitters that took care of the offense consistently, and so the defensive specialist knew that she had to shine the way she knows how.

“The past few games, I was just watching and didn’t write anything down, so I think I absorbed the plan better when I wrote it down,” she told the Inquirer in a separate interview. “I got to remember better on the court what I wrote because I was also drawing where their attacks and serves were going.”

It was not something totally new for the crack libero as she recalled doing it previously as well, saying “I stopped doing it and just thought of doing it again.”

And it couldn’t have come at a better time as the Crossovers rose to 3-1 to tie their victims. Seeing the huge boost that it gave the team, Nierva plans to continue doing the same preparation moving forward.

Studying her opponents is something Nierva learned in her stint with Alas Pilipinas.

Watching films

“Now, what I want to do is watch my game and what moves I am still lacking and read the opponent more and apply it on the court,” the National University product said. “I saw our videos from Alas where we were studying and discussing; It’s different just having the coaches feed us tactics and it’s different when us teammates feed each other information.

“Actually, during our warmup, I immediately locked into the game and shared instructions like ‘these are their tendencies,’ so I think it really helped,” Nierva said.

Cess Robles led Chery Tiggo with 17 points with Ara Galang adding 13 points and Shaya Adorador and Pauline Gaston adding 11 and 10 points, respectively. INQ