Lady Stags foil Dragons but settle for semis No. 2

MANILA, Philippines - San Sebastian slammed Maynilad’s playoff bid with a tough 25-22, 25-23, 25-20 victory at the close of the quarterfinal round in the Shakey’s V-League Open Conference at The Arena in San Juan yesterday but settled for the No. 2 in the Final Four.

League-leading scorer and spiker Lauren Ford came through with another power game with 16 attacks while Rubie de Leon and Thai import Jang Baulee tossed in 11 points apiece and Joy Benito added 10 hits for the Lady Stags, who tied the Army Lady Troopers on top at 4-1.

But Army took the No. 1 spot in the semis as SSC failed to limit Maynilad to a maximum of 40 total points to gain the top seeding in the next round where the top will meet the No. 4 squad and the Nos. 2 and 3 teams clash in a pair of best-of-three playoffs.

Air Force forced a playoff for the last semis berth with a 25-20, 25-19, 20-25, 25-19 victory over Ateneo in the other contest.

The Airwomen finished tied with their victim and the Navy side at 2-3 but the Lady Sailors clinched the No. 3 spot with a higher tiebreak score, sending Air Force and Ateneo into another game, this time for the last Final Four slot.

The playoff will be held at 4 p.m. tomorrow.

Jennifer Manzano unloaded a career-high 32 hits, including 30 attacks, while Aiza Maizo and Liza Deramos added 21 and 12 points, respectively, for Air Force, which bounced back from a third set setback with a solid game in the next to wrap up the contest.

Alyssa Valdez and Fille Cainglet combined for 34 points for Ateneo and will have to double their effort and inspire the rest to step up tomorrow to keep their bid to sweep this season’s titles alive.

Maynilad, which sprang back to life with a four-set victory over Army last Sunday, ended up with a 1-4 slate with coach Joseph Santos still proud of his wards’ overall performance in their debut in the league sponsored by Shakey’s Pizza.

“We struggled in reception against SSC but overall, the team performed well,” said Santos, who took over the coaching job late last month. “It can be seen in our scores. Had we not played well, all our losses would have been via routs.”

The hard-working Joy Cases dished out a game-high 19-point performance, highlighted by 15 kills, while Mervic Mangui, Nica Guliman and Beverly Boto had eight points each. Syvie Artates, however, was held to just four points.