San juan: The AEP-Cabstars pulled off a 25-15, 25-17, 25-19 victory over VNS Always Bright Laticrete in the 2026 Spikers' Turf Open Conference at the FilOil Playtime Center in San Juan on Friday. Jay Rack De la Noche scored 18 points as the Cabstars bounced back from their 23-25, 18-25, 10-25 loss to the Alpha Insurance Protectors last Thursday.

According to Philippines News Agency, Ruvince Abrot had 10 points while Paul Bryan Maliba and Mfena Gwaza chipped in nine and eight points, respectively, in the one-hour and 24-minute match. "It was a good comeback because our performance was bad in the first game. We were able to adjust to what we needed to fix in this match. Our game plan was followed, and at the same time, the kids showed a good performance," coach Kitty Antiporta said.

The Griffins rallied behind John Mark Obongen to force a 17-all deadlock in the third set. But setter Gabriel EJ Casa±a scored three points on two blocks and an ace in the decisive 8-2 run to propel the Cabstars to victory. Casa±a stabilized their offense with 18 excellent sets and finished with five points.

Jerzy Santos scored nine points, followed by Obongen (8) and Ronnie Adviento (6) as the Griffins dropped to 0-2 following a similar shutout loss to the Criss Cross King Crunchers in the double round-robin eliminations. Both teams will be back on Sunday at the San Juan venue with the Cabstars facing the King Crunchers at 1 p.m. and the Griffins facing 3B at 3 p.m.