BaliPure downs Air Force; UP prevails

MANILA, Philippines - BaliPure leaned on its rock solid defense to ground Air Force, 25-22, 25-19, 25-21, yesterday and gain a share of third spot in the Shakey’s V-League Season 13 Reinforced Conference at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City.

American reinforcement Katherine Morrell led the way with 19 hits, including 17 on spikes, while Dzi Gervacio backed her up with 10 points to power the Purest Water Defenders to their second straight win following a surprise 26-24, 25-21, 25-21 romp over the Customs Transformers.

BaliPure dropped its opening game assignment to league-leading UST, 25-21, 21-25, 23-25, 13-25, last Oct. 8.

Kaylee Manns, BaliPure’s other import, also came through with 44 excellent sets while chipping in six points.

Morrell, however, credited the win to their defense.

“In our first game, our defense was disorganized so we made a conscious effort to focus on it,” said Morrell, who clinched the best player of the game honors.

Later in the night, University of the Philippines bounced back from third set meltdown with a strong start in the fourth then held off Team Laoag to hack out a 25-20, 27-25, 11-25, 25-20 victory and keep their slim semis hopes alive.

Despite the win, the Lady Maroons remained at seventh with a 2-3 card and would need to sweep their last two games against BaliPure and Air Force and hope that three from Pocari, BaliPure, Air Force and Laoag won’t go over four wins to force a playoff for the last semis berth.

Laoag dropped to 2-2.

BaliPure skipper Charo Soriano, for her part, said the team’s chemistry is improving each day.

“We’re making it a point to make the team bond more and we’re really starting to get close,” said Soriano.

The Jet Spikers, this year’s Open Conference runners up, came into the match hoping to score a follow-up to the import-backed Pocari Sweat Lady Warriors, 25-20, 25-18, 25-22, last Oct. 5 despite playing with an all-Filipino.

But they fell short in their comeback bids in all three sets, sending them on the brink at 1-3 heading to the crucial phase of the single round elims of the season-ending conference sponsored by Shakey’s and backed by Mikasa as official ball and Accel as official outfitter.

Jocemer Tapic led Air Force’s charge with 10 hits while the power-hitting Joy Cases added nine and Mae Antipuesto had seven.

Earlier, Champion Supra leaned on Joven Camaganakan, Berlin Paglinawan and Arjay Onia to subdue 100 Plus, 25-22, 22-25, 25-23, 25-14, in a duel of winless teams to stay in the mix in the Spikers’ Turf Season 2 Third Conference, also at Philsports.

The troika combined for 43 hits as the Champion Supra Smashers broke away from a tight contest in the fourth set to snap their back-to-back losses.

The 100 Plus Active Spikers fell to 0-4 and bowed out of the semis race.