San Sebastian shoots Air Force down in V-League

MANILA—San Sebastian kept its intimidating form by smashing Air Force, 25-19, 25-15, 25-15, Tuesday to join Army on top in the single round quarterfinals of the Shakey’s V-League Season 8 Open Conference at the FilOil-Flying V Arena in San Juan.

With their two imports in superb form, the Lady Stags easily picked apart the Airwomen’s defense to nail their first win of the quarterfinals, where win-loss records from the elimination round are not carried over.

“They got intimidated by our imports,” said San Sebastian coach Roger Gorayeb, after Thai Jeng Bualee and American Lauren Ford combined for 30 points to lead the Lady Stags to victory in a little over an hour.

Later, Navy, drawing firepower from former MVPs Nene Bautista and Suzanne Roces, evened its card at 1-1 after blasting Maynilad, 25-15, 25-23, 25-16.

Bautista came through with 13 points, 12 on kills, while Roces had 12 points as the Lady Sailors pounced on the error-prone Water Dragons.

Maynilad, like Air Force, fell to 0-1 in the quarterfinals.

Syvie Artates and Joy Cases turned in 10 points each for the Water Dragons, who gave up 28 errors, half of Navy’s total.

The Water Dragons couldn’t recover after blowing a 22-15 advantage in the second set and played half-heartedly in the third frame.

Ford, the former University of South Carolina standout, again had an impressive 13-of-20 success rate on kills, better than Bualee’s 13-of-49 performance.

“Ford reminds me of how intimidating Bualee was before when she first came into the league,” said Gorayeb, who has one V-League title under his belt.

Ford’s effort rubbed off on the rest of the team as Jill Gustilo came through with her best game yet with nine points, while setter Rubie De Leon chipped in seven.