Eagles maul Wildcats, near Spikers’ Turf finals

MANILA, Philippines - Ateneo came out fresh from a week-long rest and pounced on a weary National College of Business and Arts side, fashioning out a 25-9, 25-22, 25-19 victory yesterday to move closer to a crack at the first Spikers’ Turf Collegiate Conference crown at The Arena in San Juan City.

Unlike in their tough four-set win over the Wildcats in the quarters last Aug. 24, the Eagles found the going smooth this time with Marck Espejo taking his familiar roll as attacker and Rex Intal and Joshua Villanueva manning their defensive fort upfront.

The result was a first set rout for the top seeded Eagles as the Wildcats struggled to find their form and rhythm coming off a grueling playoff duel with the La Salle Archers for the last semifinal berth last Saturday.

NCBA did fight back in the next two sets but Ateneo used its vaunted power game to complete the 69-minute sweep in the opener of their best-of-three semifinal series in the league presented by PLDT Home Ultera.

“We just play more aggressive,” said Ateneo coach Oliver Almadro, who drew a pair of 13-hit games from Espejo and Intal and a combined 22-point output from Villanueva and skipper Wilson Marasigan.

The Eagles, who swept the elims and the quarters, go for a sweep and the first finals berth tomorrow.

While Ateneo breezed through, second seed National U walked the tightrope before pulling off a 25-23, 26-28, 25-18, 26-28, 15-11 squeaker over Emilio Aguinaldo College to likewise gain a 1-0 edge in their side of the semis duel.

The Bulldogs came through with 11 blocks, the last ending the grueling one-hour, 56-minute duel that was close throughout.

Fauzi Ismail went on an attack mode and fired 23 kills while four others churned double-digit outputs to negate Howard Mojica’s 35-hit effort. Madzlan Gampong scored 15 points, Francis Saura made 13 markers and Bryan Bagunas and Kim Malabunga each produced 12 hits for the Bulldogs.

Mojica, the league’s leading scorer, rammed in 34 attack points but only Hariel Doguna put in the other double-digit score of 17 as Israel Encina and Kerth Melliza settled for eight and six points, respectively, for the Generals, eyeing to arrange a duel with the Eagles for a clash of collegiate champions.

“Ateneo played better than us, it’s as simple as that,” said NCBA coach Ernesto Balubar in ruling out fatigue as factor to their straight-set defeat.

The Eagles indeed showed too much firepower, pooling 45 spikes, 20 more than the Wildcats with Intal and Villanueva combining for six of Ateneo’s nine blocks as against NCBA’s four.

The Loyola-based squad also knocked down four aces, two more than its rival, with playmaker Esmilzo Polvorosa coming through with 24 of the team’s 28 excellent sets. In contrast, the Wildcats groped for their offensive plays with the team producing just eight excellent sets, leaving their designated hitters with hardly an option.

Guest players Edwin Tolentino and Reyson Fuentes, who combined for 25 hits in a 30-28, 31-29, 25-21 decision over the Archers, struggled with only eight and four points, respectively, with Ralph Oclmina also adding eight hits.

But the Wildcats are expected to bounce back strong tomorrow as they try to send the series to a deciding match on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Ateneo-NCBA duel will be shown on PTV-4 starting at 4 p.m. today with the NU-EAC clash to be aired tomorrow, according to the organizing Sports Vision.