1 day Ago
San Sebastian College-Recoletos continued its surprise surge in the second round, sweeping Jose Rizal University, 25-16, 25-21, 25-21, in the NCAA Season 100 men's volleyball tournament on Wednesday at the FilOil EcoOil Centre. The Stags, who ended the first round with a dismal 1-8 record, have now improved to 4-8 and are well within the tight Final Four race while the Heavy Bombers ended their two-game winning streak to fall to 2-10. Kyle Villamor remained solid for San Sebastian, dropping an all-around outing of 17 points built on 15 attacks and two aces laced with 14 digs to follow up on his big games in their past two victories over Arellano and San Beda.
But it was opposite spiker Joshua Espenida who spelled the difference, especially in the endgame, as he poured in a team-high 18 markers on 13 attacks and five blocks, giving Villamor the much-needed help to dispatch JRU. JRU, which was coming off two victories against De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde and Lyceum of the Philippines University, showed its winning spirit in the third set with rookie star Harry Ocay and Jake Fernandez bringing them to a 19-all deadlock. But Espenida heeded the call and stepped up, unleashing back-to-back opposite kills as the lefty spiker fueled a 4-0 rampage that saw the Stags taking a comfortable 23-19 lead.
Maki Guanzon, though, answered with a running attack to cut JRU's lead to three but his teammate Paolo Barrientos committed a service error that pushed San Sebastian's lead to 24-20. Ocay would still save one match point for JRU, but Stags' setter Jan Arano won the joust against him after his one-two play to seal the deal. Ocay paced JRU with 17 points together with seven digs and 12 receptions while Barrientos and team captain Bryle Alipan both chipped in eight markers.
—JKC, GMA Integrated News.
