Lady Tams, Bulldogs press V-League semis drive

MANILA, Philippines – Far Eastern U stakes its solid carryover card against defending champion National U today even as San Sebastian tries to prop up its own Final Four bid against undermanned University of Santo Tomas in the quarterfinal round of the Shakey’s V-League Season 13 Collegiate Conference at the Philsports Arena in Pasig.

The Lady Tams emerged the lone team without a loss after the Group B elims, bringing in a 2-0 mark into the cutthroat quarters play where every game counts. They hope to stretch that to three and zero in on the first semifinal berth in the mid-season conference sponsored by Shakey’s.

But they will be facing a fired-up NU side, which swept a hard-luck UST squad at the start of the quarters phase last Monday for a 2-1 card and looked poise to stop FEU on its tracks.

“We’re not yet the team we want to be and we still have to improve on so many things,” said FEU coach Shaq delos Santos.

Gametime is at 6 p.m. after the 4 p.m. duel between San Sebastian and UST. Both matches will be aired live on ABS-CBN Sports + Action Channel 23 and via streaming on www.sports.abs-cbn.com, according to the organizing Sports Vision.

The Lady Stags tote a 1-1 card in a tie with the Ateneo Lady Eagles and the UP Lady Maroons while the Tigresses are down with a 0-3 mark and must sweep their last two games and hope that at least two of the five teams won’t go over two wins to force a playoff for the last semis berth in the tournament backed by Mikasa as official ball and Accel as official outfitter.

Grethcel Soltones, the league’s leading scorer with a 76-hit total after the elims, is expected to lead San Sebastian’s bid against UST, which has lost two of its key players in Ennajie Laure and Cherry Rondina and has been relying on guest player Ejiya Laure, Ria Meneses, Carla Sandoval and Christine Francisco and guest setter Ma. Agatha Mangulabnan.

Still, focus will be on the FEU-NU duel with the Lady Tams’ Tony Rose Basas, Remy Joy Palma, Bernadeth Pons and Jerrili Malabanan and playmaker Angela Negrito out to neutralize the Jaja Santiago-led defending champions, who tote a 2-1 card.