Army, Cagayan whip lowly Shakey’s V-League Open foes

GOING full throttle right from the start, Army overwhelmed Baguio, 25-7, 25-17, 25-10, yesterday to tighten its grip of second spot in the Shakey’s V-League Open Conference at Filoil Flying V Arena in San Juan.

Relentless at the net, Dindin Santiago-Manabat fired 13 points, while Honey Royce Tubino finished with 10 points as the Lady Troopers rolled to their fourth win in five outings and maintained their position behind  PLDT Home Ultera.

Not even a delay due to a power outage in the second set could stop the Lady Troopers from inflicting more misery on the Summer Spikers, who lost for the fourth time in five games in their maiden appearance in the tournament.

Later, Cagayan Valley vented its ire on Philippine Coast Guard, 25-17, 25-10, 25-19, to improve to 3-1.

Two days after suffering their first loss, the Lady Rising Suns regained their old, deadly form as Janine Marciano stepped up in the absence of Angeli Tabaquero while Aiza Maizo Pontillas returned to form to help Cagayan finish off Coast Guard in just 65 minutes.

The Lady Dolphins stayed winless in five outings.

The Summer Spikers were looking to follow up their impressive win over the Lady Dolphins but  couldn’t find an answer to Army’s attack that netted 45 points, 29 more than the tally of the Summer Spikers.

In Spikers’ turf action, PLDT Home Ultera leaned on a big game from Mark Alfafara to whip Philippine Army, 25-9, 25-23, 17-25, 25-22, to raise its record to 3-1, behind Cagayan Valley (4-0).

With Joven Camaganakan and Christopher Antonio on the firing end, Champion Infinity rolled to a 25-19, 25-23, 25-20 triumph over Instituto Estetico Manila.  The Active Volley Masters rose to 2-2 while IEM dropped to 0-3.