Cangrejeras advance to LVSF finals after 4-hour marathon.

The Cangrejeras of Santurce became the first team to reach the Women’s Superior Volleyball League finals after closing out their semifinal series against the Valencianas of Juncos early Sunday morning. (Heriberto Rosario Rosa / FPV)

In Juncos, Match 4 of A semifinal is interrupted by 2 power outages

By THE STAR STAFF

On Saturday night and into the early hours of Sunday morning, the Cangrejeras of Santurce became the first team to secure a spot in the Women’s Superior Volleyball League (LVSF by its initials in Spanish) Finals Series, defeating the Valencianas of Juncos for the fourth-straight time to complete a sweep in Semifinal A.

To advance, Santurce had to dig deep and force a fifth and deciding set in a match that dragged on for four hours due to power failures at the Rafael G. Amalbert Coliseum in Juncos and surrounding areas.

The match was interrupted twice: the first instance occurred during the first set, at 9 p.m., with Santurce leading 18-16. The pause lasted for just over 40 minutes. The second stoppage took place at 11:45 p.m., just before the start of the fifth set, and lasted some 30 minutes.

The Cangrejeras prevailed with set scores of 25-22, 25-22, 16-25, 25-27 and 15-12.

Juncos forced the sudden-death final set by capitalizing on a service error by Wilmarie Rivera that tied the fourth set at 25-25. Subsequently, a direct ace by Kaleigh Nelson and a Zone 4 spike by Leandra Mangual closed out the set in favor of the Valencianas.

In the fifth set, Santurce elevated their level of play, executed precise passing, and took an early lead, eventually pulling away to a 10-5 advantage following a Zone 4 dink by Helena Grozer.

The victory was sealed at 15-12 with a spike by Andrea Rangel -- also from Zone 4 -- that crashed against the Juncos block. Santurce now awaits the winner of Semifinal B, where the Criollas of Caguas hold a 3-2 series lead over the Leonas of Ponce.

Match 6 of that series was slated for Sunday night in Ponce. A seventh and final match, if necessary, would take place Wednesday night in Caguas.

The Cangrejeras’ offense was led by Rangel (29 points), Grozer (22), and Kara McGhee (11).

Nelson led the way for Juncos with 22 points, followed by Mangual and Haley Bush with 17 points each, and 13 from Marcelle Báez.

In team statistics, Santurce prevailed in attacks (69-60), blocks (13-10), digs (95-79), passes (39-34), and assists (17-11).

Juncos held the edge in service aces (10-4).

The fourth match between the Cangrejeras and Valencianas was scheduled only after a dispute over a player substitution in Match 3 was finally resolved by the league in favor of Santurce, whose five-set win in that April 10 match was upheld.