By John Baza

GSPN Player of the Game Sia Duenas led the GW Geckos over the Sharks

The defending champion GW Geckos took to the court against the scrappy Sanchez Sharks on the Geckos’ home court Friday night.

The Geckos’ experience was apparent through most of the game, but the Sharks were resilient and did not go down without a fight. However, it was the Geckos walking home with the W (25-7, 25-13).

The Sharks took advantage early on as they went up 3-0, but that would be short lived as the Geckos’ Sia Duenas served her team to an 8-4 lead.

Teammate Jasmine Almoguera helped further the lead for GW with a couple of points off of key blocks and kills.

The Sharks’ got a nice block from their middle after the rally, but were unable to gain the point as the Geckos attacked to 12-5 lead and forced a timeout.

The Sharks were getting good looks at the ball off of hits from their outside hitters, but were unable to capitalize as the much taller Geckos locked up their defense.

The hits kept coming for the Geckos as Duenas nailed one in the corner followed by a thunderous kill from teammate Mikayla Castro as the home team ended the half on a 13-2 run to win the first set.

“Communication is what we focus on every game… we’re glad with how we’ve been playing and we plan to keep it up”, replied Geckos team captain Sia Duenas on her team’s performance.

GW looked poised the second set as Duenas put the exclamation point on a kill that sent the ball hurdling to the floor, putting them up 3-0.

The Sanchez Sharks come together after scoring a point against the Geckos. (photo by Dan Paran)

Almoguera contributed a kill and a block to lengthen the already growing lead, but the Sharks’ libero stepped up on defense as she contributed a nice dig that her team was able to score on (9-4).

The Sharks had finally gotten their big break after gaining some momentum off of team play, highleted by a key block again from the middle (15-10).

But the Geckos would make short work of it, as Sam Quinata served the home team to match point. The Sharks did not let down as they rallied the last set in competitive fashion, until the Geckos’ Castro hit one off the block to seal the game.

With the win, the Geckos improve to (2-0) while the sharks drop to (0-2).

Other Scores

Academy def. Tiyan 25-13, 25-8
Harvest def. JFK in three sets
Okkodo def. Guam High in three sets

PHOTO GALLERY:

Geckos’ Samantha Quinata taps the ball over to catch the Sharks off guard expecting a spike. (photo by Daniel Paran)

Jasmine Almoguera prepares herself for a serve from the Sharks. (photo by Daniel Paran)

Geckos Mikayla Castro sets up the ball for a teammate to spike. (photo by Daniel Paran)