ATENEO FUDGEE-BARR (1-3) nabbed its first win in the 2022 Spikers’ Turf Open Conference after finishing off the Philippine Army-Katinko Troopers (0-4) in four sets, 32-30, 25-15, 16-25, 25-15. The match was held at Paco Arena in the City of Manila earlier today.
The rookie trio composed of Kennedy Batas, Amil Pacinio Jr., and Jian Salarzon led the Blue Eagles in the scoring column with 17, 16, and 15 markers, respectively. Moreover, veteran blocker Jetlee Gopio provided the spark in the middle of the court after scoring a steady 11 points, two of which came from the blocks department.
After narrowly fending off the Army Troopers in the opening set, 32-30, the Blue Eagles were able to dominate the second frame due to their air-tight floor defense. Additionally, Ateneo capitalized on their strong serves to force Army out of their rhythm as they scored three service aces in the second set alone.
Despite falling short in the third set, 16-25, the Blue and White were able to bounce back to win the fourth set–and ultimately the match, 25-15. Charles Absin and Pacinio Jr. put the finishing touches on the game as the former stowed away a perfect kill in the middle and the latter scored a crucial ace to put away the set.
Following their first win in this year’s Spikers’ Turf, Ateneo young-gun Batas said that he is confident that his squad is slowly getting to where they want to be. “We are so ecstatic and grateful to get our first win. Hinahandle namin yung pressure in a way that we are following the system more and more.”
The Army Troopers now fell to the last place in the standings and are still looking for their first win. Madzlan Gampong led them in scoring today with 14 points whileJohn Daniel Diwa followed with seven points to his name.
Ateneo-Fudgee Barr will look to build on today’s win as they come up against a tough Cignal HD Spikers team on Thursday, September 15 at 5:30 PM. Fans can watch the games live on OneSports, Cignal Play, Smart GigaPlay and Spikers’ Turf official website: https://spikersturf.ph/live.
Box Scores:
Ateneo: Batas 17, Pacinio 16, Salarzon 15, Gopio 11, Absin 3, Go 3.
Philippine Army: Gampong 14, Diwa 7, Labide 6, Abdulmajid 5, Barrica 5, Rojas 5, Baloaloa 4, Torres 4, Abdulla 2, Taneo 1.
Set/Quarter Scores:
Ateneo-Philippine Army: 32-30, 25-25, 16-25, 25-15.
