National U-Sta. Elena got back at Cignal in style, battling back from 0-2 set down then banking on Michael Buddin and Nico Almendras’ awesome hitting in the decider to carve out a 20-25, 22-25, 25-23, 25-21, 15-10 victory and match PGJC-Navy’s big start in the semifinal round of the Spikers’ Turf Open Conference at the Paco Arena in Manila on Thursday.
Facing another straight-set defeat the way they did in their 22-25, 22-25, 22-25-22 loss at the close of the elims last Tuesday, the Nationals didn’t fold up this time, hanging tough in the third then leaning on their solid blocking in the fourth to send the match into a fifth set.
Buddin battled the HD Spikers almost single-handedly and delivered the first four points, the last forcing a tie before Almendras took over, pumping five of Sta. Elena’s next nine points, aided by a couple of Cignal attack errors, as the Nationals pulled away at 13-5.
Louie Ramirez tried to rally the HD Spikers with his own barrage of hits but Cignal could only close in at 10-13 as Ken Malinis put Sta. Elena at match point with a baseline hit and the Nationals wrapped it all up with another kill block.
"Sinwerte rin kami noong bandang huli although 'yung first at second sets, talagang pinupush ko 'yung mga bata na makakuha lang kami ng momentum, mag-iiba na," said NU-Sta. Elena head coach Dante Alinsunurin.
Almendras finished with a career-best 30 points, including 26 on attacks and four kill blocks, as the Nationals and the Sealions gained the head-start in the round-robin semis.
