Savouge Aesthetics kicked off the semifinal round of the Spikers’ Turf Invitational Conference with a 25-27, 25-16, 25-22, 25-21 win over University of Santo Tomas-Gameville on Friday at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Playing under the bright lights of the Big Dome for the first time in league history, Mark Calado and Giles Torres rose to the occasion to help Savouge win its first semifinal round assignment.
Calado dropped 20 points off 17 kills and three blocks, while Torres provided six of the team’s 11 blocks and had nine kills and two aces to finish with 17 points. Shawie Caritativo chipped in 10 points and 14 receptions.
Savouge has less than 24 hours to prepare for Australia’s ProVolley Academy on Saturday at FilOil EcoOil Centre in San Juan, 1 p.m.
‘We’re happy because that was really our goal. We wanted to start the round-robin semifinals with a win so we could keep our momentum going,’ said Savouge coach Sydney Calderon. ‘I’m also happy because over the past three days, the players really worked hard in training, and it showed; everything we practiced came out in the game.’
UST-Gameville, which missed Alas Pilipinas players Josh Ybañez, Al-Bukarie Sali, JJ Macam, and coach Odjie Mamon due to their training camp in Taiwan, dropped its first semifinals game.
GBoy De Vega stepped up for the Golden Spikers with 18 points and 24 receptions. Andrei Delicana and Sherwin Umandal had 14 and 12 points, respectively.
UST takes on Cignal, which it upset in the preliminary round, on Saturday at 5 p.m.