By Kyle Terwilliger
Variety News Staff

THE Father Duenas Friars proved to be a tough opponent on their home floor as they defeated the John F. Kennedy Islanders Monday evening in three sets. The match would prove to be a very exciting one with close finishes in all three sets.
The first set would end 28-26 in the Friars favor. The Islanders would take a 21-20 lead at the end of the first set and would hand the ball to Craig Tajalle to serve. Tajalle would serve two straight points to push the Islanders lead to 23-20.
However the Friars’ Sang Woo Choi who has seemed to step up big all season when they needed him would stop the Islanders surge with a block and would then serve three straight points of his own in order to swing the lead back to the Friars at 24-23 forcing the Islanders to call a timeout. Out of the timeout the Friars would commit an error giving the ball back to the Islanders with the score knotted at 24.
After trading points with each other Islanders’ Patrick Gumataotao’s kill would go just a little long to then swing the ball back to the Friars with the score then tied at 26. The Friars’ Ryan Salas would then serve the last two points with Royce Flores getting the 28th point with a kill down the line to take the set.
The Islanders would come out in the second half with a surge behind two aces from Christian Mafnas they would take the lead at 15-14. Mafnas would serve two more points to give the Islanders the 17-14 lead. With the score 19-16 the Islanders’ Patrick Gumataotao would get another chance at a kill and this time he would be right on giving the Islanders a 20-16 lead.
The kill would give John F. Kennedy’s senior Lester Tolentino the chance to end the game and he would serving up five straight points and would add a kill of his own to take the second set from the Friars 25-16.
The third set would be the most intense set of the match. And both teams would look to the players that had stepped up big in the first and second sets. John F. Kennedy would look to Lester Tolentino once again who would stop the momentum Father Duenas had started to gain by ending their scoring run and would allow the Islanders to keep the lead 8-5.