Perpetual opens season with Lyceum romp

For another year, former three-peat NCAA men’s volleyball champion University of Perpetual System DALTA ushered the new season with a win.

The Altas only needed three sets to dispatch the Lyceum of the Philippines University, 25-19, 25-13, 25-18, Sunday morning at the FilOil Flying V Centre.

Service errors haunted both sides throughout the match, but the Altas went to their combination attacks to snag the opening frame and virtually the match.

Rookie Joebert Almodiel led the charge for the Las Piñas team with 11 points, while captain Jun Taneo had 10 markers.

Acaylar took notice of these miscues and reminded his boys to just focus. He told them, “Just contribute your skills and your talents in volleyball.”

The national team mentor also needed to shuffle his personnel just to find the right combination to play with less pressure.

The Altas took advantage of the reception woes of the Pirates and peppered the latter with six aces. Perpetual also had 32 attacks as opposed to 20 of the Intramuros-based squad.

Jhonel Badua paced Lyceum with eight points, as Joeward Presnede was limited to just five.

The Altas (1-0) will next face the San Beda College (1-0) in an early clash of title contenders on Thursday, January 11. On the other hand, the Pirates (0-1) will take on the defending champions College of Saint Benilde (1-0) earlier that day.

The Scores:

UPHSD 3 – Almodiel 11, Taneo Jr. 10, Rosales 9, Muhali 5, Ramos 4, Catipay 3, Solamilo 0, Salo 0, Atentar 0, Bation 0, Kalingking L.

LPU 0 – Badua 8, Ilano 5, Presnede 5, Uy Corral 4, Demetera 3, Samonte 2, Lajara 0, Estranero 0, Rubio 0, Lebico L.