Air Spikers end Ateneo belles five-game win run

MANILA, Philippines - Air Force put an end to Ateneo’s amazing surge, pulling off a surprising straight-set 25-20, 25-22, 25-22 victory yesterday and nailing the last Final Four berth in the Shakey’s V-League Season 11 Open Conference before a big crowd at The Arena in San Juan City.

The Air Spikers used top hitter Maika Ortiz as a decoy to unsettle the Lady Eagles’ net defense then drew solid games from Judy Caballejo, Liza Deramos, May Ann Pantino and Joy Cases to frustrate the reigning UAAP champions, who forced a playoff for the last semis seat by sweeping the quarters phase.

Air Force also held Alyssa Valdez, who came into the one-game playoff with a 26-hit norm, to just 18 points as the Air Spikers’ blockers marked the league’s scoring leader all game long.

As No. 4 team, Air Force will take on top seed Army while No. 2 PLDT Home Telpad and third ranked defending champion Cagayan Valley clash in a pair of best-of-three duels in tomorrow’s start of the Final Four of the mid-season conference sponsored by Shakey’s and backed by Mikasa and Accel.

The Air Force-Ateneo match will be shown on GMA News TV Channel starting at 1 p.m. today, according to the organizing Sports Vision.

Ortiz, who averaged 15.6 points after the quarters, finished with just five hits but Caballejo and Pantino took charge throughout the 85-minute encounter. Caballejo produced 10 kills and wound up with 11 points while Pantino, a prized find from AMA, chipped in seven hits, including two blocks while providing a number of hustle plays.

“We know that Maika (Ortiz) is heavily guarded by tall players alike (Alyssa) Valdez and (Amy) Ahomiro so I told her to go to our open spikers more often,” said Air Force coach Clarence Esteban in Filipino.

“Good thing our plan worked,” he added.

After finishing the elims with a woeful 2-5 (win-loss) start, Valdez and the Lady Eagles went on a rampage, winning all their five games in the quarters to earn a crack at the hotly-disputed last semis berth.

But the Air Spikers had other things in mind.

They seized control early on in all three sets then fended off the Lady Eagles’ repeated comebacks to pound out the victory to the cheers of the big Air Force crowd.

“We were outnumbered but we’re thankful we have our fellow Air Force cheering for us against ‘Barangay Ateneo,’” said Esteban.

Down 0-2, the Lady Eagles went all out in the third set and battled the Air Spikers on even terms, forcing a tie at 22 on a Caballejo faulty reception.

But Rhea Dimaculangan cashed in on Ateneo’s weak defense up front and the Air Spikers soared to victory on the Lady Eagles’ back-to-back errors.