Army conquers Cagayan in first match of V-League Finals

MANILA, Philippines—It was absolute dominance for the Philippine Army Lady Troopers as they darkened the skies for the Cagayan Lady Rising Suns in four sets, 25-19, 18-25, 25-18, 25-5, at the first match of the Shakey’s V-League Open Conference at the Arena in San Juan Thursday evening.

With the preceding scores looking rather typical, the Lady Troopers were in formation for a blitzkrieg as they held the Lady Rising Suns to the lowest-ever scoring output in a Finals set.

Veteran Mary Jean Balse fired the last shot with a service ace to knock down the defending champion and gain a one match series lead in the best-of-three finals.

A non-believer of bad luck, Army head coach Sergeant Rico de Guzman said they just have to play their game and avoid the curse of the “loser’s side of the court.”

“We have not won on that side of the court,” de Guzman said of the side where they played the fourth set. “We started with our receiving game, and then blocking and pretty much everything followed.”

He added that they had no problem on the attacking force, it was on their defense that they put a work on.

“If the players see just a minimum of space in the opposing defense, it’s an automatic point.”

Runs were almost unnecessary for the Lady Troopers as the fourth set was basically one huge rally for Philippine Army.

Cagayan managed to score on back-to-back opportunities with Janine Marciano scoring through a crack in the Army formation, 17-3.

Balse notched up an ace for the match point following Nerissa Bautista’s cross-court mortar for the Army, 24-5.

Jovelyn Gonzaga was the ground commander for the Lady Troopers with 19 points with Balse adding 13, Conference Most Valuable Player Rachel Ann Daquis with 12 and Bautista contributing 10.

Only two Lady Rising Suns scored in double digits with Aiza Maizo and Rosemarie Vargas scoring 12 and 10 respectively.

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