Two USJ-R players put up a solid wall at the net in foiling a smash from an SWU spiker during their CESAFI men’s volleyball semifinal match yesterday at the USC Gym which the Jaguars won in five, bruising sets.
(CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)
The University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) Spiking Jaguars have this nasty habit of making the impossible, possible.
Yesterday’s semifinal match in the CESAFI men’s volleyball tournament was another case in point.
Undermanned and in all sorts of trouble, the Spiking Jaguars stunned defending champions Southwestern University (SWU) Cobras in five grueling sets, 25-12, 21-25, 14-25, 25-20, 15-12 to make their first CESAFI finals appearance since 2014.
The Jaguars who finished third last year, suffered some key setbacks during the off season when they lost their top offensive weapons in reigning CESAFI best attacker McCoy Rocamora and Owen Belen who exhausted their playing years in the league last season.
But those losses only ignited the fire in the Jaguars who easily took the first set, 25-12 against the erratic Cobras who committed six turnovers in the opening set at the packed University of San Carlos (USC) Main Gym.
The Cobras, however, showed their championship mettle in the second and third sets behind Bohol’s high-leaping dynamo Jude Amper who exploded for nine points helping SWU take a 2-1 lead.
“Bati ang receive sa second and third sets maong napildi mi. Nawala ang momentum,” said legendary Jaguars mentor and Hall of Famer Grace Antigua.
After taking the fourth set with a five-point margin, the Jaguars collapsed early in the fifth as they found themselves down, 8-5. But the Recolects simply refused to fold up and instead went on a, 10-4 scoring rampage including three straight points from Roj Pacio in the middle of that run to punch their hard-earned ticket to the finals.
“Ang winning factor kay tiwala lang gyod sa sarili ug communication sa players sa court and focus lang gyod sa duwa,” Antigua told CDN in a post-match interview.
Meanwhile, the USC Warriors kept their championship hopes alive by ousting the tenacious University of the Visayas (UV) Green Lancers, 25-19, 22-25, 28-26, 25-21 to forge a make or break match with the Cobras today for the last finals spot.
The Warriors who led 21-16 at one point in the third, suffered a major breakdown as they allowed the Green Lancers to score eight unanswered points for a 23-21 lead. But USC team captain Patrick Tanjay came up big late as he delivered two crucial blocks in the Warriors’ 7-3 run that proved to be the game’s most crucial streak.
It was an ugly fourth set for the Green Lancers who turned the ball over seven times allowing the Warriors to claim victory.
USC hopes to exact revenge on the same SWU squad which handed them their first loss this season when they tangle at 8 a.m. today while USJ-R and UV battle battle in a no-bearing encounter at 10.