Army gets back at Cagayan, grabs piece of lead in V-League

Games Sunday

(The Arena, San Juan)

2 p.m. – PLDT Home Telpad vs Air Force

4 p.m. – NU vs Army

6 p.m. – Ateneo vs Cagayan

MANILA, Philippines – Army overpowered defending champion Cagayan Valley, 25-22, 25-15, 22-25, 25-16, on Thursday to seize a share of the lead with PLDT Home Telpad in the Shakey’s V-League Season 11 Open Conference at The Arena in San Juan.

Nerissa Bautista, Rachel Ann Daquis, Jovelyn Gonzaga and Mary Jane Balse took turns in delivering the blows and sealing the Lady Troopers their seventh win against two losses that put them into a two-way tie with the Roger Gorayeb-mentored Turbo Boosters in this tournament bankrolled by Shakey's.

It also avenged Army's stinging 3-1 loss to Cagayan Valley last July 24 that snapped the former's five-win streak in the elimination round.

"We just did we do best, which is attack, attack and attack," said Army coach Rico de Guzman in Filipino.

And sure the Lady Troopers did as the duo of Bautista and Daquis presided over the onslaught by combining for 29 of their total 58 kills.

While Bautista and Daquis took care of all the spiking, Gonzaga and Salak, who was adjudged the season MVP of the other league, did the defending and combined for six of their team's 11 blocks.

"Aside from some defensive mistakes in the first and fourth sets, we generally did good executing our defensive game plan," said de Guzman.

Aiza Maizo led all hitters with 20 while Rosemarie Vargas scattered 13 but couldn't get more than nine hits from the rest that sent the Rising Suns crashing into their first loss after five straight wins.

Worse, Cagayan slid from No. 1 going into this much-anticipated duel between potential finals opponents down to No. 3 with a 6-2 (win-loss) slate.

After taking a tightly fought opening set, Army went to Bautista and Balse to take charge late in the second in taking the set.

All of a sudden, the Rising Suns came alive in the third set where they broke a 21-all deadlock by seizing four of the next five points including a Wenneth Eulalio kill from the center to stay alive.

Then Maizo drilled in two straight kills to get Cagayan into a 10-all tie in the fourth set.

It turned out to be Cagayan's last show of resistance as Army went to work by going on attack mode and shutting down the former's spikers to seal it.

In the other match, Ateneo drew strength from Alyssa Valdez anew as it came back from a set down to turn back Air Force in a nail-biting 25-21, 22-25, 17-25, 25-19, 15-9 victory that kept its semifinal hopes afloat.

The power-hitting Valdez, undoubtedly the most popular volleyball player in the country today, unloaded a game-high 29 hits including 26 on kills to power the Lady Eagles to their fourth win against five losses.

More importantly, it kept the reigning UAAP champion in the hunt for a semis berth as it will need to win its three remaining games to advance.

Valdez also stretched her streak of scoring not less than 26 hits to a fifth game while Ateneo has fought three straight five-setters.

The Raiders fell to their fourth defeat against six wins.