Lyceum, AdU spikers eye quarterfinal playoff berths
MANILA, Philippines - Lyceum and Adamson shoot for their second win against separate rivals today in Group A, hoping to assure themselves of at least a playoff for the last quarterfinal berth in the Shakey’s V-League Season 7 at The Arena in San Juan.
The Lady Pirates, impressive in their opening game victory over the Lady Falcons Tuesday, take on the winless St. Benilde side at 2 p.m. while Adamson collides with a debuting University of San Jose-Recoletos in the 4 p.m. main game.
Behind Thai import Porntrip Santrong, the Lady Pirates battled back from a set down to fashion out a 19-25, 25-21, 25-17, 25-21 victory over the Lady Falcons, their first over the San Marcelino-based squad in two years, sparking hopes for a team whose best finish in the league is a couple of third place finishes.
But the Pirates, backstopped by Joy Cases, Dahlia Cruz and Nica Guliman, are expected to encounter stiff resistance from the Lady Blazers, who will be going all out to avert an early ouster from the tournament sponsored by Shakey’s Pizza and presented by PLDT MyDSL.
With back-to-back losses to Ateneo and Adamson, St. Benilde, led by veteran Yumang, guest players Rossan Fajardo and Jennifer Manzano, needs no less than a win to stay in the hunt for one of the quarterfinal berths in the single round elims among 10 teams divided into two groups.
After bowing to the Lady Pirates, the Falcons pulled off a four-setter over St. Benilde, 25-11, 25-14, 23-25, 25-22, last Thursday to remain in contention. But the 2008 first conference champions, headed by early top scorer Angela Benting and former MVP Nene Bautista, expect a tougher challenge from the USJ-R spikers, the former Cebu titlists making their first appearance in the league organized bySports Vision and backed by Accel, Mikasa and Mighty Bond.
The top four teams in each group will advance to the quarters, another single round-robin phase also to be divided into two groups with the top two teams in each side clashing in a pair of crossover semis.
Meanwhile, the UST-Southwestern U match played last Thursday will be aired on NBN-4 starting at 2 p.m. today.
