MANILA, Philippines - Hope Christian High School and Colegio San Agustin lived up to the hype and whisked off the challenge of their respective rivals yesterday, scoring a pair of straight-set victories to seal a showdown for the Shakey’s Girls’ Volleyball League NCR leg crown at the Rizal Coliseum.
With Desiree Cheng, Bel Molde and Chester Ong on the firing end, the defending champion Hope Christian squad fashioned out a 25-21, 25-12 victory over Angelicum College while the CSA tossers leaned on the troika of Ana Gopico, Samantha Torres and Julia Morado again to frustrate Miriam College, 25-14, 21-18.
The Hope tossers actually had to dig deeper into their vast arsenal to thwart the Angelicum ladies’ spirited stand in the opening set before the former settled down and dominated their rivals to complete the straight-set win.
In contrast, CSA imposed its will and strength early and sustained its form to take the fight out of Miriam and gain a crack at the coveted crown in the tournament sponsored by Shakey’s Pizza and organized by Metro Sports.
Hope and CSA were disputing the crown and the lone berth in the Tournament of Champions at presstime.