Lady Blazers sustain run

MANILA, Philippines — College of St. Benilde sustained its amazing show, walloping Letran, 25-14, 17-25, 25-11, 25-15, yesterday to keep its hold of the solo lead in the NCAA Season 97 women’s volleyball competition at the Paco Arena.

Except in the second set where they lost concentration, the Lady Blazers were in total command in securing their third straight win.

The hot run brings back to memory the Taft-based belles’ effort two years ago when they magnificently went 7-0 only to get denied of a potential title after the league called the season off due to COVID-19.

CSB coach Jerry Yee, however, stressed his team is still a work in progress.

“Trying to still work on matching it,” said Yee, who also mentors the national under-17 squad.

“Compared to two years ago, we had less tournaments this year while we had a good run in the PVL (Premier Volleyball League) and we were second in the University Games back then. This year, we really had no exposure,” he added.

Skipper Francis Mycah Go was at the forefront of CSB’s relentless attack and paced all scorers with 17 points including 14 on kills while Jade Gentapa, Jhasmin Gayle Pascual and Michelle Gamit contributed 15, 13 and 11 hits, respectively.

After a relatively trouble-free opening set, Yee brought in the second group for some exposure, but it backfired and allowed Letran to steal the set.

Then he brought back the starters in the final two sets and didn’t skip a beat from there.

The Lady Knights fell to 0-3.

Earlier, Mapua drubbed Jose Rizal University, 25-14, 25-23, 25-17, to forge a four-way logjam at second with its victim, San Sebastian and Arellano U on identical 2-1 cards.