Lady Stags send Pirates to the brink

MANILA, Philippines - San Sebastian College groped for form but still found a way to repulse Lyceum, 24-26, 25-21, 25-15, 22-25, 15-5, and catch defending champion Adamson in third place in the sixth Shakey’s V-League at The Arena in San Juan City yesterday.

Laurence Ann Latigay took over in the deciding set, racking up four unanswered hits as the Lady Stags raced to a 10-3 lead en route to recording their second straight win after dropping their opening day game to the UST Tigresses.

UST scored an expected straight set romp over newcomer University of the Philippines, 25-10, 25-15, 25-16, in the second game to seize the solo lead with three straight victories.

Guest player Mary Jane Balse and Judy Ann Caballejo fired 15 and 14 hits, respectively, while Aiza Maizo, still recuperating from an ankle sprain, added 10 points for the Lady Tigers, who are seeing their fourth championship in the country’s premier volley league.

UP fell to 0-3.

The victory tied the Lady Stags, winners of last year’s second conference, in third with the defending champion Lady Falcons with 2-1 cards behind UST and FEU’s 2-0 marks.

Lyceum fell to 0-4 and must now win its last three games to remain in the hunt for the last quarterfinal berth in the single round elims sponsored by Shakey’s Pizza and organized by Sports Vision with Accel, Mikasa and OraCare as backers.

For details, log on to www.v-league.ph.

Thai import Bualee Jaroensri showed the way for SSC with 21 hits but it was Latigay who delivered the goods in the fifth set and finished with 17 points.

Nica Guliman came up with back-to-back blocks as Lyceum took the fourth set to extend the match.