By Kolby Chang

With only one week left in the regular season, the defending champion GW Geckos and Southern High Dolphins battled it out in the IIAAG Boys’ Volleyball League on Monday night at the Southern High gym. The Geckos left the Santa Rita school with a 28-26, 25-19 win and improved their record to 6-3.

The Dolphins were on top the Gadao division as recently as a few days ago last week but haven fallen to 5-4 following the loss. With the playoff just around the corner and no clear-cut title favorite, the post season is shaping up to be very competitive as more than half of the teams in the league have winning records.

The game was a tight one from the start and following a Dolphins’ error, the score was tied at 24 late in the first set. The Dolphins’ Phil Jardeleza broke the stalemate with a kill to put the home team up by one point. The Geckos answered immediately as Devin San Agustin tipped the ball past the Dolphin defense to knot the score again. The teams exchanged errors to tie the set at 26 and kept an anxious, bipartisan crowd on the edge of their seat. The Dolphins, however, committed two consecutive errors to close out the set in favor of the Geckos.

GW Allen Camacho was able to find the an opening on the cross court for the kill. (photo by Joey Blas)

The Geckos opened the second set on a roll and were up 17-12 and it appeared the visitors had the momentum. Two Gecko errors, however, allowed the Dolphins to creep back into the game. The home team capitalized on the visitors’ mistakes and kept chiseling away at the lead. Back-to-back kills from Keoni Duenas and Sydney Talledo, respectively, got the Dolphins right back into the thick of it as the scored was now tied at 17.

The second set proved to be just as tightly contested as the first set as the teams again exchanged errors on the next two plays to knot the score once again. The Geckos, however, slowly built on their lead and eventually got ahead by three points after Jacob Frias fired off a kill to make the score 21-18.

Frias delivered an ace on the next play and the visitors looked to be a roll after the Dolphins committed another error that put the Geckos up 23-18. The Dolphins did not give up and Ryan Guzman hammered down a kill to give the home team a chance at extending the game to three sets.

A Dolphins error on the next play put it at match point and the Geckos’ Matthew Soto landed the final blow as he sent over an ace that the home team had no answer for.

PHOTO GALLERY:

Kristian Aflleje serves against GW. (photo by Joey Blas)

GW Phillip Siguenza kills the ball through two defenders. (photo by Joey Blas)

GW Phillip Siguenza goes up gets the ball past Southern defenders for the kill. (photo by Joey Blas)

GW blockers able to tame the outside hitters to win the first set. (photo by Joey Blas)

Southern Kristian Aflleje goes up and tries to block the tip from Geckos. (photo by Joey Blas)

Southern Lee Reoligio was able to find a gap through GW blockers for the side out. (photo by Joey Blas)

Sydney Talledo sets up his team mate for the kill.(photo by Joey Blas)

GW blockers go up and deny a hit from Southern outside hitter. (photo by Joey Blas)

GW Shawn Duenas passes the ball to the setter in the first set against Southern (photo by Joey Blas)