BACARRA, Ilocos Norte — Black Mamba-Army crawled its way back in the last two sets to trounce BaliPure, 25-16, 25-27, 25-21, 26-24, for its first win in the Premier Volleyball League Open Conference on Tuesday in their rematch at the PCV Socio-Civic and Cultural Center.
Royse Tubino and Jovelyn Gonzaga saved the Lady Troopers from a late-game collapse as they erased a 15-18 deficit in the fourth set before Ging Balse-Pabayo delivered the back-to-back winning attacks.
Tubino tied the fourth set, 22-all, but Gen Casugod put BaliPure at set point, 24-23. Gonzaga refused to extend the match with a set-tying attack before Pabayo came up with clutch hits to deliver Army’s first win in two games.
Army vs Balipure leading scorers
Tubino fired 17 attacks for game-high 19 points. Gonzaga had 13 points, 16 digs and 12 excellent receptions. Pabayo chipped in nine markers, while Joanne Bunag and Tin Francisco added eight each.
Black Mamba-Army bounced back from Sunday’s four-set loss to Petro Gazz that faced several weather delays.
“Luckily nanalo pero yung laro medyo malayo pa dun sa hinihingi namin na performance so considering na nanalo kami nung first set tapos bigla kaming bumababa,” Army head coach KungFu Reyes said. “Halos mga naglalaro samin mga beterano pa so nireready lang namin yung ibang mga bata namin para at least kahit papaano nakikita nila kung paano maglaro yung mga beterano.”
BaliPure had a chance to take the two-set lead in the third set with a 20-14 advantage but Army pulled off a blistering 11-1 run to steal the driver’s seat.
The Water Defenders gave up 32 errors in the match. Grazielle Bombita led the team with 18 points. Bern Flora had an all-around performance with 15 points, 27 digs and 23 receptions, while Casugod added 12 in their debut loss.
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