Perpetual Help, JRU secures last final four slot

MANILA, Philippines — Perpetual Help and Jose Rizal turned back their respective opponents to clinch the last Final Four berths in the 93rd NCAA women’s volleyball tournament at the Filoil Flying V Center in San Juan City Tuesday.

 

The Lady Altas trounced the St. Benilde Lady Blazers, 27-25, 25-23, 11-25, 32-30, while the Lady Bombers bested the Lyceum of the Phl U Lady Pirates, 25-13, 23-25, 25-11, 25-12, to advance the next round alongside the Arellano U Lady Chiefs and San Beda Lady Red Spikers.

 

Perpetual Help finished at third after the elimination round with a 7-2 (win-loss) record and will play second seed San Beda while JRU ended up at No. 4 with a 6-3 slate and will clash with defending champion AU.

 

AU and San Beda both wound up with 8-1 cards but the former beat the latter on tiebreaks to clinch the top seeding.

 

Perpetual Help coach Macky Carino praised his team’s composure late in the first, second and four sets in snatching the victory.

 

CSB fell to joint fifth alongside San Sebastian with 5-4 marks and out of the race.

 

“Those sets all could have gone the other way but the girls just showed incredible poise to get those important sets,” said Carino.

 

Cindy Imbo and Maria Lourdes Clemente made most of the clutch hits and finished with 16 and 15 points, respectively.

 

MVP contender Shola Alvarez, for her part, carried JRU on her shoulders anew and fired a match-best 23 points spread out with 16 kills, four service aces and three blocks while helping her team’s floor defense with nine digs and eight receptions.

 

JRU thus advanced to the Final Four for the very first time in the modern era.

 

“I’m happy for myself and the team because this is the first time for us to play in the Final Four,” said Alvarez, who is playing his fifth and final season.