THE Mandaue City volleybelles had the answer for every run made by Catmon and took Game 1 of the best-of-three North Division Finals of the 1st Governor’s Cup Volleyball Tournament in the Mandaue City Cultural and Sports Complex last Thursday night.
Mandaue City downed the determined Catmon in straight sets, 25-23, 25-22, 25-19, and is one game away from clinching the North Division crown.
Mandaue City pulled away early in the first set with a 10-point lead, 19-9, but Catmon retaliated with a mighty 14-4 rally to tie the game at 23-all. Mandaue City stopped the bleeding with a quick hit and followed it with an ace to take the first set, 25-23.
The following two sets had the same story.
Catmon was able to trim the gap to one, 20-19, in the second set with an attack from Lyn Ross Densing but Mandaue City pulled away again, thanks to Kirsten Chane Petancio’s back-to-back hits plus an error from Catmon to make it, 23-19.
Catmon’s Densing and Francis Mae Flores connived to bring Mandaue City’s lead down to one 23-22, but Mandaue City proved to be unstoppable in the crucial part as they scored the last three points capped by Chinnie Pia Arroyo’s attack to take second set, 25-23.
Pressure
In the third set, Mandaue City raced to an 8-0 blitz forcing Catmon to call for time. Catmon rallied after the timeout and knotted the game at 11-all. But Mandaue City’s Sheila Mae Kiseo, Petancio and Jolly Velazquez scored with ease to finish the game at 25-19.
“We wanted to finish it already in the third set because one of our players--Ressel Pedroza—was not feeling well,” said head coach Jerry Rodriguez after the game, who added that they have only one practice this week because the gym was used for the City Olympics.
Catmon head coach Vilma Veloso said that for them to recover, the players have to forget about Game 1.
“Our problem was our first ball, our receiption. We will make the necessary adjustments. I told my players to empty their mind and focus on Game 2. We need to win to force a decider Game 3,” she said. (RSC)