Philippine Army tossers gain finals vs Vietnam

MANILA, Philippines—Philippine Army, brandishing a consistent attacking game walloped Ateneo, 25-13, 25-9, 25-17, Saturday to set up a finals showdown with Vietnam in the V-League Southeast Asian Club Invitational at the FilOil-Flying V Arena in San Juan.

Mayette Carolino fired 11 points, while Mary Jean Balse chipped in six in a balanced attack by the Lady Troopers, who pounced on the absence of Ateneo hitter Alyssa Valdez in the third set.

Later, Vietnam’s Vietsovpetro completed a three-game sweep of the elimination round with a 25-13, 25-21, 24-26, 25-16 whipping of Malaysia in the second game.

Army disputes the title with the Vietnamese squad at 4 p.m. Sunday with the Lady Troopers looking to avenge their 20-25, 23-25, 23-25 loss to Vietsovpetro last Friday.

Ateneo will face Malaysia in the battle for third place at 2 p.m.

“I think we can beat Vietnam, it just so happened that we committed a lot of errors in our last game,” said Rico de Guzman, the Army coach.

“We just need to double our efforts and be aggressive in blocking especially against their Russian hitters.”

One of the two Russian aces in the team, Ekaterina Martynova paced the Vietnamese squad against the Malaysians with 18 hits, while teammate Tran Thi Loan contributed 14 points.

In the battle of the two champions of the Shakey’s V-League last season, the Lady Troopers easily came out on top as Valdez’s absence hurt the Lady Eagles’ chances.

Valdez, who fired 27 points in the come-from-behind five-set win over Malaysia last Friday, was rested in the third set because of an injured right shoulder.

The Lady Troopers broke away from a 12-all count in the third set, zooming to a 23-15 lead on Dahlia Cruz’s service ace.

Fille Cainglet finished with 13 points for the Lady Eagles, who are using the tournament to toughen up for the upcoming UAAP season.

Matches can be viewed on live streaming at www.v-league.ph while ringside, lower box and general admission tickets are pegged at P300, P200, and P75, respectively.

All matches are aired on NBN 4 on a delayed basis with the first game to be telecast in the night of the same day.

The second match will be shown the following day.