The Colegio de San Juan de Letran Knights turned back a 0-2 deficit and swept the last three sets, 19-25, 12-25, 25-20, 25-22, 15-10, against the Lyceum of the Philippines University Pirates and took their maiden win of the season, Wednesday morning at the Filoil Flying V Centre.
The Pirates posed some problems for the Knights as their service and faster pace doomed the latter to errors. Letran could not get their offense going as errors on the reception and setting occur.
Letran head coach Brian Esquibel said, “Medyo nanggigil kasi yung players kaya medyo off-timing yung atake, yung blocking, yung receive laging nagmamadali, yung set laging nahoholding. Hindi kami maka-usad.”
The Knights, however, with Esquibel’s go signal was able to dictate the pace in the next two sets to tie the match. Letran also utilized their middle attackers to keep up with the Pirates.
One of these central hitters and team captain Harold Reyes said, “Sabi magfocus lang kami sa blocking. Kasi wala namang quick plays, puro open, so nagfocus kami sa blocking. Sa depensa kahit malayo hinahabol namin para maconvert namin sa depensa.”
With two sets in the bag and with momentum on their side, the Knights just closed it out off great hitting from Bobby Gatdula before Paul Alilio emphatically sealed the win with a kill block.
The Knights bombarded the opponent with 63 attacked as Gatdula paced the troop with 18 points, 17 coming from spikes. Alilio and Reyes registered for a combined 29 markers in the middle.
Joeward Presnede led the Pirates with 21 points. However, the Lyceans amassed 40 errors, most of which came from the last three sets.
The Scores:
CSJL (3) – Gatdula 18, Reyes 15, Alilio 14, Cistina 14, Dichoso 8, Sarmiento 2, Dizon 0, Ramos 0, Timbreza L, Centeno L
LPU (2) – Presnede 21, Badua 18, Ganilla 7, Donsao 5, Samonte 5, Dulce 4, Pecaña 1, Binas 1, Uy Corral 0, Magpantay 0, Rubio L
