Cignal got back at Navy in the most damaging fashion, coming away with a 25-22, 25-21, 25-20 victory in their knockout duel last night to seal a showdown with National U-Sta. Elena for the Spikers’ Turf Open Conference crown at the Paco Arena.
Owen Suarez put up a 21-excellent set performance, feeding Cignal’s battery of hitters with his remarkable brand of play throughout the one-hour, 21-minute encounter that kicked off with a slight degree of uncertainty until the HD Spikers cleared it up with an imposing third set romp.
His last set play found Ysay Marasigan taking off on Zone I for the kill that finished off the Sealions, who actually blew their chances in the first two sets with costly miscues in the stretch.
The victory didn’t only avenge the HD Spikers’ four-set loss to the Sealions in the elims but more importantly, it kept them on track for a second straight Open championship after beating the Air Force side in a pair of five-setters to complete a sweep of the two-conference 2019, including the Reinforced Conference, before the league took a three-year hiatus due to pandemic.
But this time, the seasoned HD Spikers will be facing a young but talented Nationals eager and keen on going all the way after sweeping the semis, capped by their 25-17, 20-25, 25-21, 27-25 victory over the VNS-One Alicia Griffins earlier in the day.
Game One of the best-of-three series starts at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow with Navy and VNS disputing third place honors in their side of the best-of-three at 2:30 p.m.
Sta. Elena battled back from two sets down and stunned Cignal in their semis faceoff but the HD Spikers are raring to likewise get back at the Nationals in a series that has all the trimmings of a classic encounter.
Marck Espejo unloaded 11 attack points and came through with four kill blocks for a 16-point output but credited his teammates for the victory as Marasigan stepped up to fire 14 points and JD Bugaoan added 10 points.
“Very happy and we reached the finals. But I’m not the main man here, everybody performed well and contributed, especially Ysay,” said Espejo.
Ten deadlocks and a number of lead changes marked the opening set of a match angled to go down to the wire with the HD Spikers cashing in on the Sealions back-to-back miscues to move to set point, 24-21.
Joeven dela Vega kept Navy in the game with a hit but the HD Spikers came through with a well-designed ploy by Suarez in the ensuing play, setting up Bugaoan for a swift, unmolested kill.
Jao Umandal failed to see action in the first stretch due to an infraction during the Navy-Sta. Elena match the last time out and the former UST standout and member of the national team struggled to get his rhythm and failed to dish out the game expected of him, finishing with just five points.
No Sealion scored in double figures with Greg Dolor and dela Vega matching nine-point outputs and Ron Rosales and Peter Quiel ending up with seven and five points, respectively.
The HD Spikers barely outhit the Sealions, 39-35, but produced 11 blocks, eight more than rivals. They also had three aces while yielding none.
