Lady Troopers wear down Perlas Spikers in 5

MANILA, Philippines — PacificTown Army rode on its big fourth set escape then crushed BanKo-Perlas with a strong start in the decider to fashion out a 25-22, 23-25, 27-29, 25-20, 15-7 decision and move to solo third in the Premier Volleyball League Reinforced Conference at the Flying V Centre yesterday.

Ukrainian Olena Lymareva-Flink blasted in four hits at the onset of the fifth set as the Lady Troopers pounced on the Perlas Spikers’ erratic reception to race to an 8-1 lead and never looked back on their way to a 3-2 closing mark in the first round.

The Perlas Spikers did fight back to close within 7-11 behind Nicole Tiamzon’s power hits but the former UP stalwart yielded an attack error, and the Lady Troopers scored on another BanKo-Perlas miscue and Nene Bautista fired two aces, including a lucky serve that hit the net and dropped to an unguarded spot.

Jenelle Jordan topscored for PacificTown with 23 hits, including 21 kills, while Lymareva-Flink backed her up with 19 points, 13 digs and 14 receptions.

Motolite overcame a big deficit early in the second set then went on to pummel BaliPure, 25-16, 25-21, 25-18, and end a four-game skid later in the day.

The Power Builders finally got their game going without Myla Pablo as imports Kristel Esdelle and Channon Thompson outplayed counterparts Alexandra Vajdova and Danijela Dzakovic and the locals stepped up along the way. Motolite thus moved up to 1-4.