Army, Meralco dispute Shakey’s V-L QF berth

MANILA, Philippines - Army and Meralco face off today in a crucial match for the third quarterfinal berth even as Air Force and Navy try to bolster their respective bids in the Shakey’s V-League 10 Open Conference at The Arena in San Juan City.

The Army Women and the Power Spikers actually have the inside track on the next two berths in the next round with 3-1 and 3-2 marks, respectively, but they need one more win to formalize their quarters stint and avoid the specter of falling into a playoff.

They clash at 4 p.m. with the winner joining unbeaten Cagayan Province (7-0) and Smart-Maynilad (4-2) in the next phase where they will carry their respective records, thus making each game important.

Air Force, which split its first four games, takes on a struggling Navy in the 2 p.m. opener with the former hoping to put its one foot in the quarters and the latter shooting for a second win in six games and put some cushion against the expected late-surge by Philippine National Police (0-4) and Far Eastern U (0-5).

After sweeping its first three games, Army got swept by Cagayan last Sunday, stalling the Army Women’s march to the quarters. But they are expected to vent their ire on the Power Spikers and try to build another momentum going into the crucial stage of the season-ending conference of the league sponsored by Shakey’s.

Meralco, on the other hand, hopes to shake off a nine-day layoff and break a win-loss-win-loss-win pattern that has marked the Power Spikers’ campaign in the league backed by Mikasa and Accel.

The match also features the league’s leading scorer and blocker with Meralco’s Chinese reinforcement Coco Wang, boasting of the league-best 50.82 percent success in spikes, going up against Army’s Jovelyn Gonzaga, currently the league’s top blocker with 1.08 norm per set.

Wang, who has converted a total of 62 spikes from 122 attempts, also hopes to draw support from Maureen Ouano, Fille Cainglet, Maica Morada, Stephanie Mercado and Ivy Remulla as they seek for their first back-to-back victories.

Aside from Gonzaga, also Army’s top hitter and the league’s No. 2 with 48.84 percent success, Army Women’s coach Rico de Guzman will pin his hopes on Joanne Bunag, Cristina Salak, Nene Bautista, Michelle Carolino and Rachel Daquis, who saw limited minutes against Cagayan.

Meanwhile, the Army-Cagayan match last Sunday will be shown on GMA News TV Channel 11 today starting at 1 p.m. while the Air Force-Navy duel will be aired tomorrow and the Army-Meralco showdown will be aired Monday, according to the organizing Sports Vision.