Smart slams door on Army

ALYSSA Valdez upheld her reputation as a big match player as Smart-Maynilad squeaked past Philippine Army, 21-25, 25-20, 25-13, 21-25, 15-10, last night to set up a championship duel with unbeaten Cagayan Province last night in the Shakey’s V-League Open Conference at Filoil Flying V Arena in San Juan.

Making up for her so-so showing in Game 2, the Ateneo standout delivered the telling blows in the deciding set to lift the Net Spikers to the finals in their debut tournament in the V-League.

The deciding match of the best-of-three semifinal series was still too close to call until Valdez fired three consecutive kills to put the Net Spikers at match point, 14-9.

Rachel Ann Daquis gave Army a glimmer of hope by saving a match point, before Valdez wrapped up the win with a powerful hit.

The Net Spikers now go up against an unbeaten Cagayan Province squad which is riding high on a 14-game winning run in the conference.

Valdez finished with 24 points for Smart which got a massive boost with the debut of Dindin Santiago who fired 19 points. Kesinee Lithawat also had 20 hits for Smart.

“We were surprised she was given permisssion to play because as of last night (Saturday), there was no word yet if she’d play,” said Smart coach Roger Gorayeb in Filipino referring to Santiago, who was in the Smart-Maynilad roster since the start but couldn’t get clearance to play from National University.

Game 1 of the best-of-three finals starts tomorrow at 4 p.m. after the 2 p.m. battle for third between Army and Air Force.

The awards rites for the conference’s top performers will be held after the Army-Air Force duel.

Jovelyn Gonzaga paced the Lady Troopers with 17 points and 12 digs while Daquis chipped in 12 points.

Army sent the game to a deciding set after Daquis converted a kill that followed a service error from Valdez.

The 6-foot-1 Santiago highlighted her rather late debut with three blocks while altering Army’s offensive  with her intimidating presence at the net.