By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
After several months of preliminary round matches, the Iloilo Inter-Call Center Sports Fest finally hailed their championship teams in both the men’s volleyball and basketball categories.
Ruling the men’s volleyball are the spikers from team Carelon after hacking out a thrilling five-set win over team Xtend Ops, 25-19, 23-25, 27-29, 25-9, 17-15, while team TruAlliant continued their dominance in the men’s hoops and swept Ttec in Game 2, 80-65.
It was the exact scenario like the first game for Carelon after they also found themselves in a 1-2 hole to kick off the championship series.
After a convincing first set win, Carelon’s errors once again haunted them, allowing team Xtend Ops to take away their momentum to rack up two-straight set wins.
However, just when Xtend Ops thought they could sustain their rally and force a deciding Game 3, team Carelon suddenly flipped the switch and stepped on the gas pedal in the fourth set.
Carelon was all over the place hammering the ball while also doubling up their effort in their floor coverage and middle blocking.
Their defensive adjustment paid off dividends as Xtend Ops only tallied a total of nine points in the fourth set which set up another fifth-set marathon.
Carelon punched first in the deciding set and took a slim two-point lead. Xtend Ops then made things interesting after building a massive rally to reach match point, 14-12.
Unfazed while showing nerves of steel, Carelon weathered the storm in the final 10 minutes of the fifth set and scored three-straight spikes to retake the lead, 15-14.
Xtend Ops answered back with a spike of their own to tie the game, 15-all, but Carelon closed the show in style after back-to-back scores to clinch the championship title.
Kent Brian Martinez was named as the Most Valuable Player who was responsible for Carelon’s last four points during their completed comeback attempt.
Moving on to the men’s basketball finals, team TruAlliant scored a wire-to-wire victory over Ttec to end the series in a 2-0 sweep.
TruAlliant quickly went off to the races to build a 10-2 lead and never looked back after protecting their lead for four-straight quarters.
The top-seeded squad then built its largest lead of 22 points, 60-38, and just dominated Ttec on both ends of the floor.
Ttec was able to score some timely baskets in the final frame to trim their deficit but TruAlliant answered back to maintain their double-digit lead.
Julio Ceasar Garcia was hailed as the MVP after putting up a consistent performance both in offense and defense.
