MANILA, Philippines—Philippine Army and Vietnamese squad Vietsovpetro made light work of their respective rivals Thursday at the start of the V-League Southeast Asian Club Invitational at the FilOil Flying V Arena in San Juan.
The Lady Troopers cruised to a 25-14, 25-18, 25-21 victory over Malaysia and the Vietnamese duplicated the straight-set win against Ateneo, 25-15, 25-16, 25-17, in the second game.
Army and Vietnam clash today with the winner expected to nail the No. 1 seed at the end of the single-round tournament. The top two teams at the end of the round-robin eliminations will meet in the finals on Sunday.
“We didn’t expect a straight-set win but the players were able to execute our game plan and that proved to be the difference,” Army coach Rico De Guzman said in Filipino.
Showing their vast international experience, national team standouts Michelle and Mayette Carolino fired 15 and 13 points, respectively as the Lady Troopers fashioned out the win in just 69 minutes.
Mary Jean Balse chipped in 11 points and Rachel Ann Daquis came through with eight for the Lady Troopers, who had 19 more attack points with 43 and nine service aces.
No Malaysian player breached double figures with Teh Huei Hong ending up as the best scorer with nine.
With some of its players missing the game because of the ongoing University Games in Iloilo, Ateneo proved easy picking for the Vietnamese club spearheaded by Russians Ekaterina Martynova and Anactaxia Trernai.
With the Vietnamese squad varying its attacks, the Lady Eagles found difficulty to cope, giving up 50 attack points. Vietnam also exploited its height advantage to neutralize the Ateneo attack, which managed just 24 points.
The Russian duo combined for 26 points, while Thi Ngoan Nguyen made her presence felt with 12 points for Vietsovpetro, which finished off the Lady Eagles in just 64 minutes.
Alyssa Valdez and Angeline Gervacio paced the Lady Eagles with 11 points each, while Fille Cainglet wound up with nine.
“We are good in attacking and blocking,” said Vietnam’s Russian coach Aleksey Diva through an interpreter. “But we are trying to jell, we need more practice. We need to fix our problem in receiving.”