Marck Espejo’s FC Tokyo failed to close out defending champion Suntory in five sets, 25-23, 25-23, 20-25, 27-29, 12-15, to drop their second-straight match in the 2021-22 V.League Division 1 men’s tournament on Sunday afternoon at the Sky Arena.
The 24-year-old Filipino outside hitter finished with 15 points in the match with a 48.4 success rate.
Coming off a five-set loss to the same squad yesterday, Tokyo came back in the second match with a vengeance. It secured the first two sets to take an early 2-0 advantage over Suntory.
The team, however, seemed to have run out of gas in the ensuing frames. The Sunbirds then forced a deciding fifth set where they capped off the 2-3 reverse sweep of Tokyo.
Kenya Fujinaka finished with 22 points for Suntory. Cuban import De Armas Berrio Alai had 20 points, while yesterday’s top scorer in Masahiro Yanagida collected 17 markers.
On the other hand, Yuma Nagatomo led Tokyo in the scoring department with 20 points. Norwegian reinforcement Jonas Kvalen ended up with 17 markers.
The Sunbirds weathered a late surge from Tokyo yesterday, gutting out a 26-24, 25-22, 23-25, 21-25, 15-11 victory in five sets.
FC Tokyo looks to clinch its first win against the JTEKT Stings at 5:00 PM on Saturday at the Panasonic Arena.
