Wildcats foil Cards, share S Turf lead

MANILA, Philippines - National College of Business and Arts continued to dish out big games behind its two talent guest players, repulsing Mapua, 24-26, 25-20, 26-24, 25-21, and forcing a three-way tie for the Group A lead in the Spikers’ Turf Season 1-Collegiate Conference at The Arena in San Juan late Wednesday.

Like in their four-set win over the Far Eastern U Tams last week, the Wildcats rebounded from a first-set setback with a sweep of the next three to fuel their drive for a quarterfinal berth in the league presented by PLDT Home Ultera.

The Wildcats banked on their net defense to fend off the Cardinals, scoring 13 blocks, including six from guest player Reyson Fuentes while Daryl Valenzuela added three.

Edwin Tolentino, the other guest player, delivered the goods on the other side, topscoring with 19 hits, including 15 on attacks, as he combined with Fuentes to provide the experience and poise for the squad making an early impact in the country’s first-ever men’s inter-collegiate volley championship.

The two teams virtually cancelled it out in spikes with NCBA prevailing by just one, 51-50. They also traded four aces and finished with almost the same numbers even in non-scoring skills – 24-23 (digs) and 33-32 (sets) both in NCBA’s favor. Mapua proved better in reception with 30 excellent receives as against its rival’s 27.