College of St. Benilde marched into the NCAA men’s volleyball finals with a 25-18, 25-23, 25-20 triumph over Emilio Aguinaldo College (EAC) yesterday at The Arena in San Juan City.
The second-seeded Blazers banked on their smart plays anchored on versatile setter Kevin Magsino to frustrate the Generals in the second stepladder semifinal round.
CSB’swin set up a best-of-three championship affair with defending champion University of Perpetual Help, which advanced outright to the finals after completing a 9-game sweep of elims.
Magsino provided 24 excellent sets.
The Blazers displayed their experience against the young but aggressive Generals side by exploiting EAC’s weak serves with Ruvince Abrot leading the assault.
Abrot and Francis Basilan combined for 20 of the team’s 38 attacks.
Abrot finished with 12 points while Basilan chipped in nine points.
“We were trying to be consistent in the game, but we were erratic in the second set. Thankfully, our experience to recover from that set performance enabled us to win the game,” said St. Benilde coach Arnold Laniog.
EAC, which came off from a stunning 24-26, 8-25, 25-20, 25-18, 21-19 victory over last year’s finalist Arellano last week, failed to recover in the third after St. Benilde surged ahead, 16-13.
In juniors, Letran barged into the finals with a 30-28, 25-21, 25-20 win over Lyceum in the last stepladder round.
Christian Dela Cruz fired 19 kills to finish with 21 points for the Squires, who arranged a best-of-three finals match with the University of Perpetual Help Junior Altas.
Perpetual also gained outright championship berth sweeping the elims.
Game 1 of the men’s and juniors finals will be on Friday.
