The Philippine Army Lady Troopers didn’t seem to care if it was Kia’s first game in the Shakey’s V-League. The Lady troopers dominated their opponents enroute to a straight set victory, 25-15, 25-18, 25-11, Sunday afternoon at the San Juan Arena.
The new team on the block had difficulty scoring early on. Kia was outscored 8-2 heading into the first technical timeout of the opening set. They were able to find their bearings, trimming the deficit to 3, 12-9, thanks to the efforts of Alexa Micek and Mina Aganon. Unfortunately, Kia was never able to continue their momentum as the team’s players unfamiliarity with each other showed as they committed error after error, allowing Army to cruise to a 1-0 set advantage.
Kia, as a whole, played better at the start of the second set, keeping pace with the veteran laden Army squad. Army held a slim 6-5 lead before clamping down on defense, denying Kia from scoring easy points. Army’s veteran savvy showed as their lead jumped to 7, 16-9. Kia was never able to recover.
Army continued its onslaught, outscoring Kia 12-3 to begin the third set. Unable to string together consistent consecutive points, as well as coughing up multiple errors, Kia fell to the experienced Army team.
Army was led by Jovelyn Gonzaga, who scored 12 points, 8 coming from attacks, and two each from blocks and service aces. Nerissa Bautista also contributed double-digits scoring with 10 points, while their new teammate, Aby Marano notched 6 points of her own.
For Kia, Fil-Am Alexa Micek topscored with 10 points, 7 via attacks, 2 from blocks, and a service ace. Mina Aganon and Shiela Pineda shared the scoring load with 9 and 8 points, respectively.
While the Lady Troopers held the edge offensively, scoring 33 points off of attacks to Kia’s 25, Kia played netted 50 excellent digs behind Jen Reyes and Shiela Pineda, compared to 45 from Army.
It was Kia’s multiple errors that had the biggest effect in the match. Kia committed a whopping 30 errors in 3 sets, while Army fumbled the ball a total of 10 times.
The Lady Troopers next face UP on October 18, 12:45 at the San Juan Arena. Kia, on the other hand, faces the PLDT Home Ultera Ultra Fast Spikers at 3pm on the same day.
The scores:
Army (3) – Gonzaga 12, Bautista 10, Marano 6, Tubino 5, Palma 4, Balse-Pabayo 2, Salak 2, Sabas 1, Bunag 1, Carolino 1, Gonzales 1, Agno (L), Siatan-Torres (L)
Kia (0) – Micek 10, Aganon 9, Pineda 8, Guevarra 3, Saet 2, Eulalio 1, Layug 1, Reyes (L), Cui (L)
