Fiery Suns rise over Troopers in opener

MANILA, Philippines -  Cagayan Valley-Perpetual Help put up an impenetrable defense that defending champion Philippine Army could not punch through en route to drawing first blood in their Shakey’s V-League Open best-of-three semifinal series with a surprisingly easy 25-20, 25-15, 25-20 triumph yesterday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

The Rising Suns thwarted the Lady Troopers’ assault with rock-solid blocking and spiked in their own shots with relative ease en route to the straight-set victory that put Cagayan within a win of advancing to the finals of the league sponsored by Shakey’s Pizza.

“Maganda ang blocking namin ngayon, talagang pinag-practice-an namin ang blocking at kung sino ang spikers na babantayan (We gave emphasis on blocking their top spikers during our practice and it worked),” said Cagayan coach Mike Rafael.

Cagayan-Perpetual goes for a sweep and a stint in the championship tomorrow.

 Top seed Sandugo-San Sebastian and first conference champion Ateneo are disputing the other berth in their own best-of-three series at presstime.

The Rising Suns pulled off 12 points off the block, led by foreign guest Kunbang Pornpimol and team captain Joy Cases who had three points apiece in that department. They surrendered only 25 spikes (out of 117) to the Lady Troopers, while banging in 45 kills (out of 107) of their own.

“Hindi ko inakala na mag-straight sets kasi Philippine Army yan, champion. Maganda lang siguro ang gising namin at pangit naman ang gising nila (I didn’t expect it to be a straight set victory against a champion team like Army. Perhaps we caught them on an off day),” said Rafael.

Pornpimol paced Cagayan-Perpetual with 18 points and was backed up by Sandra delos Santos’ 12 and Honey Rose Tubino’s 11.

No one among the Lady Troopers finished in double figures with Joanne Bunag, Rachel Anne Daquis and Jacqueline Alarca posting eight apiece.

The Rising Suns emerged on top after a close first set, scoring three successive points on a hit by Cases and back-to-back Army errors to take the opening frame.

Cagayan strung up 12 unanswered points in the middle of the second set to post a 21-13 cushion en route to a runaway victory in the set.

After blowing a 21-15 lead and allowing Army to threaten to within 22-20, the Rising Suns got a big lift from Delos Santos, who scored the next three points and secure the match for Cagayan in the event organized by Sports Vision and backed by Mikasa and Accel.