Army hammers out 4-set thriller over Navy

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Army fought back from a first-set meltdown with a sweep of the next three frames as it carved out a tough 23-25, 25-21, 25-22, 25-23 victory over Navy in a duel of military teams in the Shakey’s V-League Season 8 Open Conference at The Arena in San Juan yesterday.

Michelle Carolino flashed top form and unloaded 23 hits, two blocks and a service ace, her last spike sealed Army’s victory in a power-packed, seesaw game that took nearly two hours to finish.

“We often meet in other tournaments and we’re always plus-5 against them. This time, however, we struggled in our reception,” said Army coach Rico de Guzman in Filipino.

Ateneo picked up its second straight win with a 25-23, 25-17, 25-21 victory over Perpetual Help, taking the solo lead in the early going of the tournament sponsored by Shakey’s Pizza.

Fille Cainglet followed up her 15-point production against Maynilad last Sunday with a 17-hit performance, while Alyssa Valdez added 10 hits to power the Lady Eagles to their second straight-set win in row.

Norie Diaz made 10 hits while Sandra delos Santos, Honey Tubino and April Sartin combined for 21 points for the Altas, who kept the game close but just couldn’t unleash a strong finishing kick.

Army sat on a 22-18 cushion in the opening set but crumbled in the face of Navy’s big comeback behind former MVPs Nene Bautista and Suzanne Roces.

But Carolino and Bunag re-asserted their might off the net and outlasted Navy in the second frame before Army repulsed its rival with a gritty stand in the next two sets to pound out the victory.

Joanne Bunag backed the 2005 first conference MVP’s solid game with 20 hits while former UST standout and 2004 MVP Mary Jean Balse added 10 spikes and three blocks.

Roces topscored for Navy with 20 points and four blocks while Bautista and Laborte added 16 and 15 points, respectively, in the tournament organized by Sports Vision and backed by Accel, Mikasa and Maynilad Water.

The Army-Navy match will be shown on NBN-4 starting at 2 p.m. today and also on GMA-7‘s international channels GMA Pinoy TV, GMA LifeTV and GMA News TV.

For live streaming of the games, log on to www.v-league.ph.