PLDT, Air Force eye ‘rubber’

Games tomorrow

2 p.m. – PLDT vs Cagayan Valley

4 p.m. – Army vs Air Force

MANILA, Philippines - Down in their respective best-of-three Final Four series, PLDT Home Telpad and Air Force try to figure out what went wrong in the opener and what must be done to force a pair of sudden deaths against Cagayan Valley and Army in the Shakey’s V-League Season 11 Open Conference at The Arena in San Juan tomorrow.

But the Turbo Boosters and the Air Spikers need only to look at the stats sheets to find out the adjustments they must make to get back at the Rising Suns and the Lady Troopers and keep them in the hunt for the final berths in the mid-season conference sponsored by Shakey’s.

Both Army and Cagayan used their vaunted attacking game to seize the head-start in the short series backed by Mikasa and Accel with the Lady Troopers even bucking their top hitter’s poor form to turn back the Air Spikers, 24-26, 25-19, 25-20, 25-19.

With Rachel Ann Daquis struggling and pulled out after two sets, Army’s other spikers kept the ball slamming on both sides – in a more accurate fashion, producing 61 kills out of 158 attempts, 12 more than the Air Spikers, who even unloaded more spikes – 173. 

Army coach Rico de Guzman also sprang a pair of surprises in Genie Sabas and Joanne Bunag, who stepped up and combined for 24 hits, ably backing up Jovelyn Gonzaga’s 18 markers, MJ Balse’s 13 points and Nerissa Bautista’s 11-point effort.

Air Force, which ousted Ateneo in sudden death to nail the last semis seat, did draw 42 points from four players but had a lot of misses off the spike, even putting to naught the team’s 66 excellent sets, including 56 from ace setter Rhea Dimaculangan. Army produced just 58 excellent sets, all but one from Tina Salak.

Like Army, Cagayan overwhelmed PLDT on the net, knocking in 62 kills out of 151 attempts against the Turbo Boosters’ measly 40-attack output out of 146 tries en route to a 25-11. 16-25, 25-14, 25-20. Like Air Force, PLDT also squandered a number of scoring chances after the team came through with 48 excellent sets, including 47 from Rubie de Leon.

Cagayan, which lost its first four games in the quarters but won the last to clinch the No. 3 spot, also played with near-precision, outhitting their rivals despite producing just 32 excellent sets, including 21 from Gyzele Sy.

For sure, Army and Cagayan will be loading up in attacks in a bid to finish off their rivals tomorrow but expect Air Force and PLDT Home Telpad to go all-out to make it a do-or-die affair for the coveted finals slots.

Meanwhile, the PLDT-Cagayan duel last Thursday will be aired on GMA News TV Channel starting at 1 p.m. today, according to the organizing Sports Vision.