USA SWEEPS FOURSOMES, EURO CLAIMS FOURBALLS KO duels determine V-L finals cast
Games today (Paco Arena) 2 p.m. – Perpetual Help vs FEU (women’s) 4 p.m. – Ateneo vs La Salle (men’s)
Far Eastern U clashes with Perpetual Help while Ateneo slugs it out with La Salle in a pair of sudden deaths for the other final berths in the women’s and men’s sides, respectively, of the V-League Collegiate Challenge at the Paco Arena in Manila.
Rookie Keisha Bedonia stepped up to power the topseeded Lady Tamaraws past the Lady Altas, 23-25, 25-23, 25-17, 25-13, last Friday as they forced the decider in their best-of-three playoff.
But expect the Lady Altas, who surprised the Lady Tamaraws in Game One, 25-21, 28-26, 26-24, to likewise make the necessary adjustments, ensuring a slam-bang action in the 2 p.m. clash between two talented squads seeking to dispute the women’s tiara with the College of Saint Benilde side.
The Lady Blazers swept the University of the East Lady Warriors, capping it with a 25-21, 25-13, 25-10 victory in Game Two to clinch the first finals seat in the tournament organized by Sports Vision and sponsored by Bola.TV, Beyond Active Wear, and Mikasa.
The 4 p.m. duel between the long-feuding schools also promises to be tight and fierce with the Green Spikers hoping to ride the momentum of their 25-21, 25-21, 25-21 Game Two win last Friday.
CASARES, Spain (AP) – With the help of a hole-in-one, a hole-out from the fairway and a chip-in, Europe rallied against the United States after being swept in the opening foursome matches at the Solheim Cup, winning two of the afternoon fourball matches to reduce the Americans’ lead to 5-3 on Friday.
Emily Pedersen made a hole-inone on the par-3 12th to ignite the Europeans’ comeback after the U.S. had its best-ever start, then Gemma Dryburgh holed out from the fairway on the 16th and Leona Maguire chipped in from off the green on the 18th to make it close again for Europe at Finca Cortesin in southern Spain.
“I’m really proud of the way the entire team fought back in the afternoon,” European captain Suzann Pettersen said. “It’s not easy to stand on that tee in the afternoon knowing you’re down four after the first session. So I got to say, hat’s off to all my players, the way they fought and the way they showed their character on this Friday afternoon. You get knocked down, you stand up, and you try it again, and that’s kind of what I told the girls and they did.”
The Europeans also got a boost from home-crowd favorite Carlota Ciganda, the only Spaniard in the team. After sitting out the morning session, Ciganda made six birdies in a 4 and 2 win with Linn Grant against Ally Ewing and Angel Yin.
“I’m just trying to put a leash on (Carlota) this week. I mean, she would jump off and fly if she could,” Pettersen said. “So I’m really just trying to keep her grounded. She’s playing fantastic. It’s just fun to see how she can cope with the pressure being at home soil playing for Spain in front of literally her entire nation.”