V.League woes continue for Santiago, Bagunas, Espejo

Photo from Saitama Ageo Medics

MANILA, Philippines—It was another winless day for the Philippine internationals in the 2021-22 Japan V.League season with Jaja Santiago, Bryan Bagunas, and Marck Espejo all suffering losses Sunday.

Santiago and Saitama got swept in their weekend series against defending champion JT Marvelous, 25-23, 25-18, 25-20, at Higashiyama Gymnasium in Kyoto.

JT, which won its first meeting against the Ageo Medics in four sets on Saturday, relied on American Annie Drews who had 22 points in the two teams’ second meeting.

Santiago struggled to find her offense, scoring a season-low four points as Mami Uchiseto led the charge for the Ageo Medics with 12 points.

Saitama are now at 2-2 following a 2-0 start in the season.

FC Tokyo and Marck Espejo suffered their fourth straight defeat, bowing to the JTEKT Stings in five sets, 25-17, 22-25, 23-25, 27-25, 15-11 at Panasonic Arena.

Espejo had 19 points for Tokyo, which has yet to win a match this year, while Yuma Nagatomo and Jonas Kvalen had 18 and 17 points, respectively.

Oita Miyoshi and Bagunas have now lost three straight after they fell to the Wolfdogs Nagoya in three sets, 25-23, 25-23, 25-22, at Toyoda Gosei Memoiral Gymnasium.

The Weisse Adler slid to 1-3 in the standings as Bagunas finished with 12 points while Emerson Rodriguez added 11 points.

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