BALIPURE STAYS ALIVE, FOILS ADAMSON

BALIPURE snapped a two-game skid with a 25-18, 25-23, 19-25, 25-20 romp over Adamson-Akari yesterday as the Water Defenders stayed in the the Premier Volleyball League Open Conference at the Filoil Flying V Center in San Juan.

Save for a listless third set stint, the Water Defenders dominated the Lady Falcons, wresting control early off their rivals’ gritty stand in the next before pouncing on Adamson’s miscues in the fourth to fashion out the victory.

The Lady Falcons saved one match point at 19-24 on a BaliPure service error but Chiara Permentilla’s attack error and Eli Soyud’s weak serve that slammed into the net enabled the Water Defenders to claim the set and the match.

“We need to win our last two games to have a chance of making the semis and I’m glad the girls responded to the challenge,” said BaliPure coach Roger Gorayeb.

It was only BaliPure’s third win against three losses but it proved enough to tie the Water Defenders with the idle PerlasBanKo Spikers at fourth heading to their last elims assignments against the two of the league’s top teams.

Perlas will play unbeaten Creamline at 4 p.m. while BaliPure will

STANDINGS ( WOMEN’S) Creamline 6 Air Force 4 Pocari 4 Perlas-BanKo 3 BaliPure 3 Adamson 1 Power Smashers 1 UP 1 0 1 1 3 3 5 5 5 take on defending champion Pocari Sweat at 6:30 p.m., both on Sunday. If BaliPure and Perlas prevail, they will most likely dispute the last Final Four seat in the mid-season conference of the league organized by Sports Vision.

- ing three blocks while reed-thin Jasmine Nabor added eight points while producing 32 excellent sets to bag the game’s top honors.

Adamson joined UP and the Power Smashers in the sidelines with 1-5 slates.

Earlier, Sta. Elena and Army scored expected straight- set victories over ousted rivals to remain tied at fourth at 4- 3 in the men’s side of the tournament backed by Mikasa and Asics.

Sta. Elena tripped Gamboa Coffee, 25- 19, 25- 16, 25- 20, while Army thumped Café Lupe, 25-16, 25-20, 25-17.