V-League: Army dominates Cagayan to take Game One of finals

 

Army unleashed its full might in the fourth and held Cagayan Valley to a record low finals output, fashioning out a 25-19, 18-25, 25-18, 25-5 victory to move within a win from sweeping the Shakey’s V-League Season 11 Open Conference crown before a huge Thursday crowd at The Arena in San Juan.

 

Jovelyn Gonzaga, MVP Rachel Ann Daquis, MJ Balse and Nerissa Bautista took turns blasting in smashes after smashes into the Rising Suns fort in an awesome display of power game in the fourth frame.

 

With their offense in full throttle, the Lady Troopers proved as unforgiving in defense, foiling the Rising Suns’ series of attempts with superb reception and terrific blocking, taking the last set in just 18 minutes.

 

“Receive, block and defense – those were the things I told my players to remember,” said Army coach Rico de Guzman after steering the fancied Lady Troopers to the convincing victory for a 1-0 lead in their best-of-three series for the crown of the mid-season conference.

 

Army, which ruled the inaugural staging of the Open conference in 2011, goes for the clincher in Game Two on Sunday.

 

If necessary, Game Three will be played on Sept. 7.

 

Bracing for a dogfight, the Lady Troopers found the going a little bit tougher only in the second frame when they slackened off in defense.

 

But after some adjustments, the Lady Troopers were back in their fierce form, winning the third handily before holding the defending champions to just five points, which was an all-time league low in a championship game.

 

 

Earlier, Air Force bucked the absence of coach Clarence Esteban and a first set defeat as it carved out a 16-25, 25-23, 25-19, 25-12 victory over PLDT Home TelPad to likewise move a win away from clinching third place honors

 

Maika Ortiz led the attack with 19 hits while Joy Cases, Judy Caballejo and Iari Yongco scattered 16, 15 and 11, respectively to help seal the win for Air Spikers, who responded well to Jessie Sison, who took over from Esteban.

 

In her second stint with PLDT Home Telpad, former scoring leader Dindin Santiago delivered 16 hits but failed to draw solid support from the team’s regular hitters with former MVP Sue Roces scoring just 10 points and Gretchel Soltones adding nine markers.

 

Meanwhile, the Air Force-PLDT match will be shown on GMA News TV Channel starting at 1 p.m. today. The Game Two matches, however, will be aired live Sunday, according to the organizing Sports Vision.

 

Meanwhile, Daquis took the coveted Conference MVP honors with the best server award to boot during awards rites.

 

"To tell you the truth, I'm hesitant to receive this award because I consider all my teammates as MVPs. I'm also more concerned in winning the title," said the 25-year-old Daquis.

 

Other awardees were National U's Jaja Santiago (Best Attacker), Ateneo's Alyssa Valdez (Best Scorer), Cagayan Valley's Rhea Dimaculangan (Best Setter), PLDT's Lizlee Pantone (Best Receiver) and Cagayan Valley's Sheila Pineda (Best Digger).

 

It was the comely Daquis' third MVP trophy after she emerging Finals MVP in the 2011 Open Conference and 2014 First Conference.

 

Daquis also became the fifth player in the current Army roster to win the MVP plum with the other four being Jovelyn Gonzaga (2013), Mary Jean Balse (2004, 2009), Nene Bautista (2008) and Michelle Carolino (2004).