Shakey’s V-League Open: Army, Cagayan Valley trounce foes to stay undefeated

TEAM STANDINGS

Cagayan Valley—4-0

Philippine Army—2-0

Smart-Maynilad—3-1

Meralco—2-2

Philippine Air Force—1-2

Philippine Navy—0-2

Philippine National Police—0-2

Far Eastern University—0-3

GAMES ON TUESDAY (September 3 at The Arena, San Juan City)

2:00PM PNP vs. Army

4:00PM Meralco vs. Navy

THE ARENA, San Juan City—The Philippine Army Lady Troopers and the Cagayan Valley Rising Suns continued their torrid pace to remain as the only unscathed squads as they picked up straight-sets victories against the Philippine Navy and Meralco, respectively, in the ongoing preliminary round of the Shakey’s V-League Open Conference here.

Army def. Navy—25-14, 25-12, 25-13

The “Bionic Ilongga” Jovelyn Gonzaga joined forces with province-mate Nerissa Bautista to lead the Lady Troopers to their second consecutive triumph in as many games against a hapless Lady Sailors contingent still struggling for form. Gonzaga and Bautista—both from Iloilo and both international beach volleyball campaigners—scored eleven points apiece as Army bucked the loss of starting middle-hitter Jacqueline Alarca due to a debilitating knee injury.

Alarca, a former UAAP MVP while playing for De La Salle University, will be missing extended time due to the said injury according to Lady Troopers assistant coach Emilio “Kung Fu” Reyes.

“Jac’s knee is practically at the point where it’s almost bone on bone,” Reyes explained, in the vernacular. “She’ll have it checked this week, but she will have to sit out for some time.”

Bautista started in Alarca’s place as Army Head Coach Rico de Guzman tweaked his line-up starting skipper Joanne Bunag at Alarca’s middle-hitter position and place Bautista at her natural open-spiker slot. Starting setter Tina Salak was not even fielded in as reserve playmaker Ers Iratay and all-around star Mayeth Carolino shared the setting duties.

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The Lady Troopers hardly missed a beat as they raced to an eight point lead in the early portion of the first set behind six kills from Gonzaga and five from Bautista, who herself had to be lifted from the game nearing the end of the opener after twisting her ankle and had to be re-taped. She returned, finished the match and was eventually named Player of the Game.

Navy employed a gambit of their own by inserting former national juniors team setter Michelle Simbajon at the libero spot and activating former national team mainstay Mayi Prochina in hopes of garnering additional offense. It seemed to work in the second set when the Lady Sailors raced to a 5-0 edge, but bombs from Bunag and reserve center Genie Sabas crushed the uprising and Army took command until the end.

The Lady Sailors were led in scoring by Philippine volleyball icon Mic-Mic Laborte with nine markers but could not get ample support from others as Navy dropped to 0-2 in the standings and tied the idle Philippine National Police (PNP) Lady Patrollers at the bottom of the heap; with only the Far Eastern University (FEU) Lady Tamaraws having a worse record with 0-3.

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Navy next takes on the Meralco Power Spikers while Army clashes with PNP. both matches happen this Tuesday (September 3).

Cagayan Valley def. Meralco—26-24, 25-22, 25-14

In the second match, the Rising Suns came from behind to snare the first two sets before turning on the afterburners in the third to dispose of a heady Power Spikers squad to improve to 4-0 in the standings.

Thai teenage sensation Kannika Thipachot came away with a blistering performance to derail Meralco’s bid for its first winning streak as the Power Spikers vaunted frontline defense was torn to shambles by Cagayan Valley’s relentless attacks.

Thipachot, 17, erupted for 24 points—including four block points—totally controlling the open-spikers’ side tiff against Meralco’s Fille Cainglet, Stephanie Mercado and even moonlighting Maica Morada who could only combine for half of the Bangkok native’s output. National Team Captain Angee Tabaquero added fourteen points while national team utility-spiker Aiza Maizo-Pontillas contributed nine in the encounter that was tightly contested through the initial two sets.

Power Spikers Chinese import Coco Wang was the lone bright spot for Meralco as she poured in eighteen points but support for her was wanting, to say the least.

The Rising Suns have nine of the fourteen members of the national team in their roster and will complete all of its prelims assignments before heading to Thailand on September 10 to compete in the Asian Volleyball Championship. The league made the necessary adjustments when the schedule was redone following a playdate postponement during the height of typhoon “Maring” and the Habagat rains it brought about. The quarterfinals commence when the nationals return.

Meralco dropped to 2-2 in the standings and will be trying to bounce back against Navy on Tuesday. Cagayan Valley locks horns with winless FEU on Friday.

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Lastly, I want to send out warm birthday greetings to my newest broadcast partner Michele Gumabao who turns 21 today (September 2). As I told her in my tweet earlier, “everything is now legal”. Her reply: “In all states”. Feisty still.

I will be working with Michele again on for the Tuesday games which you can catch daily on GMA News TV channel 11 or via live streaming on the league’s official website. See you at SJA, guys.

BOXSCORES:

Army (2-0) def. Navy (0-2) in straight sets

PA—Bautista 11, Gonzaga 11, Bunag 8, Sabas 8, Cruz 5, Mi. Carolino 3, Ma. Carolino 3, Balse 2, Siatan-Torres (L) 0, Nunag (L) 0, Iratay 0.

PN—Laborte 9, Prochina 6, Ybañez-Chavez 4, Tabuena-Cruzada 4, Praca 3, Suson 3, Serafica 2, Cerveza 1, Simbajon (L) 0, Cais (L) 0, Mirabueno 0, Fajardo 0.

Cagayan Valley (4-0) def. Meralco (2-2) in straight sets

Cagayan Valley—Thipachot 24, Tabaquero 14, Maizo-Pontillas 9, Eulalio 6, Soriano 4, Soraya 2, Dionela (L) 0, Benito 0, Saet 0.

Meralco—Wang 18, Penetrante-Ouano 8, Mercado 5, Cainglet 4, Morada 3, Remulla 2, Reyes (L) 0, Jose 0, Bello 0, Quemada 0, Velez 0.

Follow Noel Zarate on Twitter (@NoelZarate) and email sportztackle@yahoo.com