Cagayan Valley overcomes Army to annex 2nd V-League crown

Cagayan Valley uncoiled its vaunted power game midway in the fifth set and pounced on Army’s miscues and poor reception to essay a 22-25, 25-23, 25-17, 20-25, 15-9 victory and capture the Shakey’s V-League Season 11 Reinforced Conference crown before a big Sunday crowd at The Arena in San Juan.

The Rising Suns overcame a 0-3 start in the decider and strung up seven straight points to turn a 5-6 deficit to a 12-6 lead before thwarting the Lady Troopers’ desperate rally to sweep their best-of-three series and annex the crown in the season-ending conference of the league sponsored by Shakey’s and backed by Mikasa and Accel.

Earlier, Instituto Estetico Manila rode on a big windup to scuttle Systema Tooth and Gum Care, 19-25, 25-19, 13-25, 25-21, 15-13, and force a sudden death for the league’s inaugural men’s crown.

Not even the surprise appearance of former National U stars Dindin Santiago and Carmina Aganon midway in the five-set match could unsettle the determined Rising Suns, who racked up three straight hits after falling 0-3 in the fifth then held their arch rivals scoreless in a long stretch to pull away from a 5-6 deficit.

Patcharee Saengmuang, one of Cagayan’s two Thai guest players, scored three points in that decisive 7-0 binge aided by two Army’s errors as MVP Aiza Maizo-Pontillas stayed at the service line to help key the Rising Suns’ big surge that turned what had been a shaky start into a convincing triumph.

The victory was Cagayan Valley’s second championship in the league where it all started after scoring a breakthrough win in last year’s Open Conference over Smart Maynilad. It also avenged the Rising Suns’ setback to the Lady Troopers in the recent Open Conference finals.

“I told my players that they should treat this (match) like we’re defending the title,” said Cagayan coach Nes Pamilar, whose wards took the series’ opener, 25-23, 20-25, 25-21, 25-18, last Sunday.

Santiago, who with Aganon were given the green light to play, banged in a kill to keep Army in the match, 8-13, before Saengmuang countered with her own smash the center and Amporn Hyapha, the other Thai reinforcement, scored on a running attack to wrap the match in 1:59.

Pontillas topscored with 25 hits and later bagged the Finals MVP honors while Hyapha and Saengmuang backed her up with 21 and 19 markers, respectively, for the Rising Suns, who produced 69 smashes, 11 more than the star-studded Lady Troopers.

“I draw my strength and inspiration from my family back in Iloilo,” said the former UST star who completed a grand slam of sorts by winning the title, the conference MVP and the Finals MVP.

Earlier, Salvador Timbal smashed a ferocious kill through two Systema defenders to break a 12-all count in the decider then Jeffrey Jimenez came through with a block and a smash that the Active Smashes failed to return, enabling the Volley Masters to snatch the win and send their best-of-three series to a rubber match next Sunday.

Systema took the opener, rallying from two sets down to snare a 21-25, 23-25, 25-19, 25-23, 16-14 victory. Despite an early struggle in the fifth that saw IEM race to an 8-3 lead, Systema, behind Chris Antonio, fought back to level the count at 10 and 11 before grabbing a 12-11 on a Timbal hit that sailed long.

But Chris Antonio made a service error and Timbal fired a vicious kill before Jimenez took over with a block and a hit that wrapped up the action-packed two-hour, six-minute encounter.

"We just played tough in the fifth set," said IEM coach Ernesto Balubar .

Jimenez went on to finish with 17 hits, highlighting another impressive outing with 13 kills and three blocks, while Jason Canlas backed him up with a solid 16-point output, including three bocks.

Eden Canlas also made a good account of himself with 10 markers while Timbal would up with eight hits and Rudy Gatdula, Karl dela Calzada, Rennz Ordoñez and Karl Rosete combined for 18 points for the IEM side.

Libero Carl Almario produced 19 digs for IEM, which finished with 43, 15 more than Systema.

Chris Macasaet uncoiled a 23-hit game for the Active Smashers, who also drew 14 markers from Angelo Espiritu and 11 from the power-hitting Syl Honrade, who also came up with four blocks.

Systema had all the chances to finish off IEM after seizing a 2-1 set lead and wrested a 12-11 in the last set only to blow it when the going got tough.

"We were also up by two sets in Game One but we blew it," said Balubar. "I guess we learned from our mistakes in that match." — V-League