Volley Masters rip Thunder, near Shakey’s final

MANILA, Philippines - Instituto Estetico Manila found a way to neutralize Rizal Technological U’s speed and power as it hacked out a 25-14, 25-22, 25-16 victory to move one win away from barging into the finals in men’s play of the Shakey’s V-League Season 11 Third Conference at The Arena in San Juan City last night.

PLDT Home Telpad hung tough in the decider as it escaped past a gritty Meralco side, 25-20, 25-14, 22-25, 16-25, 17-15, to stay in the finals hunt in women’s play.

Gretchel Soltones and Laurence Ann Latigay uncorked 28 and 21 hits, respectively, to help propel the Turbo Boosters to their second win against the same number of losses, just behind the second running Cagayan Valley, which totes a 2-1 mark.

Army is a cinch for the first finals berth with four straight wins.

While the power-hitting Soltones and Latigay dominated in the first two sets, Ryzabelle Devanadera delivered the last two points in the gripping fifth set to finish off the Power Spikers.

Meralco fell to 0-5.

Jeffrey Jimenez fired 13 hits while Jason Canlas, Eden Canlas and Karl dela Calzada tossed in seven points each for the Volley Masters, who got back at the Blue Thunder and tied the idle Systema Active Smashers at the helm at 3-1 heading to the last four playdates of the double-round elims among four teams in the season-ending conference of the league sponsored by Shakey’s and backed by Mikasa and Accel.

RTU rallied in the last two sets to snatch a 25-22, 25-27, 12-25, 29-27, 15-11 victory over IEM in their first round clash last Oct. 12. But the Thunder failed to duplicate its come-from-behind win and fell to 1-3 in the company of FEU.

IEM’s win also drove a wedge between the top two teams from the other two with the Volley Masters going for the finals clincher against the FEU Tams tomorrow.

Systema, on the other hand, will resume its bid next Tuesday against RTU.

“We’re a step away from our goal, which is to make the finals first and hope for the best from there,” said Instituto coach Ernesto Balubar. 

“The first time we played them, we haven’t really practiced that much,” added Balubar. “But since then, we really worked hard on our conditioning as well as our system.”

Flashing its superiority in attacks, 39-32, the Volley Masters also proved as solid in reception with RTU failing to score a single point off the serve.

In contrast, the Thunder struggled on the receiving end with Jimenez scoring three service winners and Michael Conde adding two.

IEM’s solid net defense likewise neutralize RTU’s attack with no Thunder scoring in double figures.

Abdul Majid Jaidal topscored for the Mandaluyong-based squad with eight points while Sahud Masahud and Paul Patrocenio adding seven and six points, respectively.