PVL PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Marck Espejo poured 12 points in limited action as defending champion Cignal made short work of Army-Katinko, 25-15, 25-14, 25-19, for its second straight win in the 2022 Spikers’ Turf Open Conference on Saturday at Paco Arena.
Espejo nailed eight of his 13 spike attempts and delivered four blocks, playing only in the first two sets, which was enough to send the Troopers to their second loss in just 75 minutes.
The multi-awarded outside hitter was happy with the progress of the HD Spikers so far after keeping the early lead with their second win in the tournament, including a three-set victory over the Sta. Rosa Lions last Tuesday’s opener.
“I’m happy because our game today had a lot of difference compared to our last game. I know that we still have a lot of things to learn and improve in this journey. But I’m happy that in a short period of time, two trainings, we already made certain adjustments,” said Espejo in Filipino shortly after the game.
para sa akin hindi naman sa satisfied pero masaya ako na malaki yung naging difference namin from last game to today’s game
Cignal bagged its 15th straight victory dating back to the 2019 Reinforced Conference semifinals, where it lost to Sta. Elena in five sets last July 14, 2019.
JP Bugaoan was also instrumental with nine points, providing four of the HD Spikers’ 10 blocks. Ysay Marasigan drilled eight kills for nine points, while substitute Alfred Valbuena started in the third and finished with seven markers.
Cignal coach Dexter Clamor had the luxury of fielding all his players as they asserted their mastery of Army from their previous tune-up games.
“All my players performed well compared to our last game against Sta. Rosa. I think our advantage against Army is our tune-up games against them. We were able to gain their respect and beat them from those tune-up games,” Clamor said in Filipino. “At the same time, we were able to study the strong points and weak points of Army. We scouted their previous game against Sta. Elena.
The Troopers dropped their second straight game, following a four-set loss to Sta. Elena Nationals last Thursday.
Benjaylo Labide and Patrick Rojas carried Army with nine points each as they didn’t score a block and an ace in the match and got outplayed by Cignal in attacking, 34-41, while giving up 19 errors.