Cagayan, Smart near finals

CAGAYAN Province overcame a slow start to repulse Philippine Air Force, 17-25, 30-28, 25-19, 25-9, last night and moved on the brink of clinching a finals slot in the Shakey’s V-League Open Conference at Filoil Flying V Arena in San Juan.

The Lady Rising Suns recovered from a listless opening set, showing nerves of steel in an extended second frame, before unleashing the brunt of their attack to wrap up the win in four sets and stretch their winning run to 13 matches.

Cagayan, runner-up last year, can book a return trip to the finals with a victory over Air Force in Game 2 on Friday.

“It’s good that we were able to recover from the first set loss,” said Cagayan coach Nes Pamilar in Filipino.

Kannika Thipachot fired 23 points, with 20 coming off attacks, while Aiza Maizo scattered 15, including the hit that clinched the match for the Rising Suns after one hour and 40 minutes.
Later, Smart leaned on the duo of Kesinee Lithawat and Alyssa Valdez as it hammered out a 28-26, 25-17, 19-25, 29-27 triumph over second seed Philippine Army to also take a 1-0 lead in their own best-of-three series.

Lithawat and Valdez combined for 43 points while another Thai reinforcement Wanida Kotruang finished with 16 hits to propel the Net Spikers who came into the match as the No. 3 seed.

Army, the 2011 champion, floundered in the crucial moments in the tightly fought first and fourth sets, pushing them on the brink of elimination despite losing for only the third time in the tournament.

With Joy Cases and Judy Caballejo turning their games up a notch, the Air Women got off to a promising start in the first set, where they neutralized the Lady Rising Suns’ vaunted attacking game.

And just when it looked like Air Force was ready to put the Lady Rising Suns on the ropes in a thrilling second set, Maizo responded with back-to-back kills after a 28-all count to allow Cagayan to pull even at one set apiece.

The second set loss seemed to take the wind out of the Air Women and they virtually conceded the third and fourth sets.