Friars Defeat Tiyan in Volleyball

Team captain Eric Ada helped lead the Father Duenas Friars to a two-set victory over the Tiyan Titans on Tuesday in front of the Titans’ home court. Ada ended both sets with kills to secure a 25-19, 25-17 victory in the Independent Interscholastic Athletic Association of Guam Boys’ Volleyball League.

With the game on the line, Friars starting setter RJ Rokop found Ada both times as the duo connected on high balls down the middle that made it difficult to block for the Titans.

And it’s not like they didn’t try. Titans middle blocker Ryan Soulik finished with a game-high four blocks at the net with three of those block points. Giovanni Manglona was not a pushover either, as he challenged the Friar tandem of Ada and De’Aundre Cruz.

Manglona finished with a team-high three kills, one ace and a block in an effort to keep his team’s hope alive, but it wasn’t enough as the Friars kept the pressure on throughout the match.
It was a good game for Ada, who started off the season with a light ankle injury. But he’s looking just fine as he led both teams with nine kills.

“I’m feeling 100 percent right now. I put on a hundred percent every time for my team, because they work hard for me. I think (RJ) just puts the ball where he thinks it’s going to go down, and I guess tonight it was me,” said Ada. “They’re a really scrappy team, and they got a lot of balls up,” said Ada. “But our main focus was to keep our energy up and play our game and just flow from there.”

Friars’ Leon Shimizu finished with four kills and one block, while Rokop finished with three kills, an ace and 20 assists.

The Titans were able to garner nine total kills, and committed fewer errors with 18 kills including two missed serves. The Friars finished with 17 errors, but lost a total of nine serves.