Jet Spikers stop Ball Hammers
Games Sunday
1 p.m. – Air Force vs Animo
3 p.m. – EasyTrip vs IEM
5 p.m. – Cignal vs Sta. Elena
Air Force used its power and came out better than Sta. Elena in their fierce duel on the net, pulling off a 25-22, 25-22, 26-28, 29-27 victory to firm up its bid in the Spikers’ Turf Reinforced Conference at the Paco Arena in Manila last Tuesday.
Bryan Bagunas primed up for his upcoming stint with the National team in Thailand Open next week, firing 22 points while Kim Malabunga and Alnakran Abdilla combined for 34 markers as the Jet Spikers overpowered the Ball Hammers, 51-39, in attack points.
The two teams also put on display their blocking prowess with the Jet Spikers coming through with 17, including seven from Malabunga and five from Abdilla, and the Ball Hammers finishing with 13 kill blocks, including eight from Ber Daymil.
Air Force actually yielded 43 points on miscues, 11 more than their rivals, but the Ball Hammers failed to completely cash in on those errors with foiled attempts upfront.
The Jet Spikers thus hiked their slate to 8-1, staying half-a-game behind unbeaten Cignal HD (8-0) while dealing the Ball Hammers, who surprised the Nationals in four last week, their fourth loss against five wins in the third season of the country’s premier men’s league organized by Sports Vision.
Rebisco-Philippines, meanwhile, rebounded from that loss to Sta. Lucia with a resounding 25-20, 25-15, 25-23 victory over lowly Easytrip while PLDT held off Navy, 25-22, 25-18, 29-27, as the Nationals and the Home Fibr Power Hitters remained tied at third with 7-2 marks.
Bagunas showed no signs of slowing down as he put in a 19-point effort for Team Phl which also Marck Espejo added 16 points and skipper Johnvic De Guzman chipped in 13 markers.
