THE teams of Marck Espejo and Bryan Bagunas continued to struggle in the Japan V.League ahead of their match-up on Friday.
Espejo and FC Tokyo remained winless in six games after falling to Nagoya anew, 24-26, 23-25, 25-23, 25-21, on Sunday at the Toyoda Gosei Memorial Gymnasium Entrio.
Bagunas and Oita Miyoshi absorbed their fifth straight loss at the hands of Toray Arrows, 17-25, 18-25, 25-22, 16-25, at the Miyazaki Prefecture Gymnasium.
PH stars set for Japan face-off
The two Filipino volleyball stars, who faced off in several title duels in the UAAP and Spikers’ Turf, will collide for the first time in Japan on Friday and Saturday.
Polish import Bartosz Kurek once again torched Espejo’s team with 29 points to give Nagoya a 5-1 record - good for a share of first place with Osaka and Panasonic.
Ryota Denda nailed six blocks for 13 points, while Kenta Takanashi added 10 to complete the sweep on Tokyo.
Espejo struggled anew with six kills out of 22 attempts as his team dropped to 0-6.
Jonas Kvalen led Tokyo with 19 points. Hideyuki Kuriyama had 13 markers, while Yuma Nagatomo had 10.
Christian Padal scored 23 from 14 attacks, six aces and three blocks as Toray gained the fourth seed with 4-2 record.
Kentaro Takahashi was also sensational for the Wolfdogs as he nailed nine kill blocks, as many attacks and a pair of aces to finish with 20 points.
Oita slid to 1-5 record as Bagunas was held to just eight points, hitting seven-of-20 in attacking.
Weisse Adler leaned on Emerson Rodriguez and Kenta Koga, who led the way with 13 and 11 points, respectively.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph