Airmen down Sailors, close in on Spikers' Turf semis

MANILA, Philippines - Air Force razed down Navy with its power game and combination plays and came away with a 25-21, 25-21, 25-18 victory to zero in on the first semifinal berth in the Spikers’ Turf Season 1 Reinforced Conference at The Arena in San Juan late Sunday.

The Sailors actually put up superb blocking all game, producing nine, but just couldn’t completely neutralize the Airmen, who finished with 44 attack points against their rivals 27.

Rodolfo Labrador led Air Force’s attack with 14 hits, including 12 kills, while Ruben Inaudito added 10 and Jeffry Malabanan and Nino Jeruz each chipped in seven markers.

Nur Amin Madsari outhit Labrador with a 15-point effort but the top Navy spiker failed to draw other double-digit outputs from the rest with Razzel Palisoc finishing with seven hits and Jayson Sapida and Edgardo Rusit adding five points each.

The victory was Air Force’s third straight following a pair of four-set escapes over Instituto Estetico Manila and Cignal with the Airmen moving one win away from formalizing their stint in the semis in the single round robin elims among six teams in the season-ending conference of the league presented by PLDT Home Ultera and backed by Mikasa.

Air Force also leaned on Jessie Lopez’s solid playmaking skills, finishing with half of the team’s 32 excellent sets, 19 more than Navy’s 13-set effort that included 12 from Paul Junio.

Meanwhile, the league braces for a fierce action tomorrow (Wednesday) with a heavy three-game bill with Air Force shooting for the first Final Four berth against Sta. Elena at 1 p.m.