Lady Pirates shock Tigresses, near finals

MANILA, Philippines - Lyceum, which lost all its previous 14 matches to University of Santo Tomas since 2004, finally ended the Tigresses domination as it hacked out a thrilling 30-32, 25-15, 23-25, 25-23, 15-10 victory yesterday in Game One of their Final Four showdown in the Shakey’s V-League Season 7 at The Arena.

Thai import Porntip Santrong turned in a monster game of 35 points, including 27 kills and seven service aces while Nica Guliman and Joy Cases added 17 points apiece for the Lady Pirates, now a win away from making a first-ever finals stint after a couple of three-place efforts and a number of forgettable finishes.

They are also raring to end the five-time champion Tigresses’ reign in the league sponsored by Shakey’s Pizza and presented by PLDT MyDSL.

“I know we can beat them. I believe we can beat any team in this tournament,” said LPU coach Emil Lontoc, after steering the Pirates to their first win over the fancied España-based squad in their 15 faceoffs.

Lyceum, unfancied until it stunned one-time champion and many-time NCAA titlist San Sebastian also in five sets in the quarterfinals, fought back from a grueling first-set loss with victories in the second and fourth sets then proved steadier and hungrier in the stretch.

Santrong highlighted her solid performance with seven aces with her 27th attack piercing through UST’s defense and ending the two-hour, nine-minute clash in the first of two semis duels in the league sponsored by Shakey’s Pizza and presented by PLDT MyDSL.

The Lady Pirates also dominated the net on the defensive end with Guliman out-blocking the entire UST team with six while Syvie Artates added three. Lyceum finished with 12 blocks compared to UST’s five.

The loss sent the Tigresses to the brink of missing the finals of the league, organized by Sports Vision and backed by Accel, Mikasa and Mighty Bond, for the first time in the last six conferences they had seen action where they won four, including the last two.