Army grounds AFP, gains V-League lead

Army cashed in on Air orce’s sha y windup in the fourth and hac ed out a tough 25-20, 23-25, 25-16, 25-23 decision to wrest the solo lead in the Sha ey’s -League Season 11 Open Conference eliminations at The Arena in San Juan.

The Lady Troopers pounced on the aiders’ two costly net violations to rally from 18-21 down in the fourth, rac ing up seven of the last nine hits and pounding out the one-hour, 51-minute win that put the Season 8 champions ahead of the pac with a 2-0 card.

MJ Balse came away with two service aces, including one that hit the tip of the net and dropped into an unguarded Air orce spot while Ginie Sabas scored on a bloc and punched in a down-the-line hit before achel Ann aquis capped the Lady Troopers strong finish with a bloc off Mai a Ortiz.

Later in the day, powerhouse newcomer PL T Home Telpad put away an erratic Ateneo side as it fashioned out a 25-21, 25-13, 26-24 victory to join Army in the lead in the early going of the mid-season conference of the league sponsored by Sha ey’s.

ormer M P Suzanne oces struc for 12 hits, including the match-clinching attac that wrapped up the one-hour, 17-minute duel of two of the league’s fancied teams, while Charo Soriano scored eight points against her former team.

Alyssa aldez unloaded 14 ills and finished with 18 hits but failed to draw solid support from the rest with Miren Gequillana’s five points proving to be the team’s next best output.

The Power Attac ers, who played with top hitter indin Santiago for the second straight game after also scoring a sweep over the P Lady Maroons last Thursday, scored 33 points off the Lady agles’ errors but struggled a bit late in the third, enabling the reigning AAP champions to extend the match a little longer.

Meanwhile, the Army-Air orce duel will be shown today at 1 p.m. on GMA News T Channel with the PL T Home Telpad-Ateneo clash to be telecast tomorrow, according to the organizing Sports ision.

The aiders, who fought bac from 3-8 start in the fourth to ta e command at 20-17, loo ed headed to sending the match into the deciding fifth when Jen Manzano neutralized a Jovelyn Gonzaga attac with her own ill to eep Air orce ahead by three at 21-18.

But the aiders committed bac - to-bac net violations, enabling the Lady Troopers to bounce bac behind Balse and Sabas. Air orce actually failed to score from there, their last two points courtesy of a Balse service error and wide spi e by Gonzaga.

Balse, a former league M P, and aquis each scored 20 hits and Gonzaga added 12 mar ers but the Lady Troopers barely edged the aiders in attac s, 4 -47, as Ortiz fired 14 hits and Judy Caballejo and ari ongco tossed in 12 points apiece.