EAC, Benilde spikers dispute crown

MANILA, Philippines - Emilio Aguinaldo College and College of St. Benilde are eyeing their first ever men’s volleyball title. But only one of them will get to walk away with the trophy.

With the series tied at one match apiece, the Generals and the Blazers battle it out for the last time in Game Three of their men’s title showdown in the 90th NCAA volleyball tournament at The Arena in San Juan City today.

St. Benilde took the series opener, 27-25, 25-20, 23-25, 26-24, last Wednesday before EAC knotted it up with a 25-22, 21-25, 21-25, 25-15, 15-13 win Friday to arrange the decider set at 2 p.m.

All eyes are expected to focus on newly-awarded MVP Howard Mojica, who terrorized the Blazers with his season-best 33 hits including 28 on kills.

The power-spiking Mojica also utterly dominated an error-prone Johnvic de Guzman, who was limited to just 20 in Game Two.

De Guzman was firing on all cylinders in Game One where he unloaded 26, matching Mojica’s output and leading the Blazers to the Game One win.

St. Benilde coach Arnold Laniog, however, isn’t blaming de Guzman, but their defense on Mojica.

“The only way for us to win this is to slow down Mojica. If we can’t do that, we’ll have no chance,” said Laniog, who steered Systema to a second place finish in the men’s conference of the Shakey’s V-League last year.

Both EAC and St. Benilde have never won a single men’s volley crown in their stint in the league.